To place the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq under the direct authority and foreign policy guidance of the Secretary of State.

EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS FOR IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN SECURITY
AND RECONSTRUCTION, 2004

The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under the previous order, the
Senate will resume consideration of S. 1689, which the clerk will
report.
The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

A bill (S. 1689) making emergency supplemental
appropriations for Iraq and Afghanistan security and
reconstruction for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2004,
and for other purposes.

Pending:

McConnell modified amendment No. 1795, to commend the Armed
Forces of the United States in the War on Terrorism.
Biden amendment No. 1796, to provide funds for the security
and stabilization of Iraq by suspending a portion of the
reductions in the highest income tax rate for individual
taxpayers.

The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under the previous order, there
will be 40 minutes divided in the usual form on the McConnell amendment
No. 1795.
The Senator from Kentucky.

Amendment No. 1795

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, before proceeding to my remarks about
the pending amendment, I point out to Members of the Senate that we are
all familiar with the National Endowment for Democracy and the fact
that it provides funds to the International Republican Institute and
the National Democratic Institute, which operate overseas to help
promote democracy, human rights, and all of the things that Americans
believe are important.
The National Democratic Institute recently issued a report on Iraq
that I think is noteworthy, and I am going to point out some excerpts
from that.
I ask unanimous consent that excerpts from this report be printed in
the Record.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so
ordered.
(See exhibit 1.)
Mr. McCONNELL. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright currently
chairs the National Democratic Institute and she points out:

The past half-century provides ample proof that democracy
is more than just another form of government; it is also a
powerful generator of international security, prosperity and
peace.

According to the NDI, inside Iraq there is an explosion of democratic
politics.

. . . NDI will find fertile ground for democracy promotion
initiatives on a scale not seen since the heady days of the
fall of the Berlin wall.

That bears repeating, that the National Democratic Institute finds
within Iraq today an explosion of democracy, and fertile ground for
democracy promotion initiatives on a scale not seen since the fall of
the Berlin wall.
Another finding of the NDI that I think is noteworthy is that the
Iraqis are grateful for their liberation. There has been some notion
promoted, I think by many in the press, that somehow the Iraqis are
sorry that Saddam is gone. The NDI, headed by Madeleine Albright, finds
that the Iraqis are grateful for their liberation.
In addition, the NDI finds significant evidence of support for the
United States. For example, they say:

In Kirkuk, there was a large painted sign reading ``Thank
you USA'' in English and in Kurdish.

Additionally, the NDI found overwhelming support for liberation, but
lack of stability or economic opportunity obviously does erode, to some
extent, support for the U.S.
They found that security and jobs are a precondition to democracy. We
know that, and that is what this supplemental is all about. They found
Iraqi frustrations are due to fear and uncertainty, not hostility
toward the United

[[Page S12312]]

States. This is the National Democratic Institute, headed by Madeleine
Albright, which said that Iraqi frustrations are due to fear and
uncertainty, not to hostility toward the United States.
The NDI also found that the Iraqis need our help now, and that is
what this supplemental is all about. They also found that chaos and
slow progress would feed the forces of radicalism, which seems an
obvious statement to this Senator, and I believe their findings
highlight the fact that time to act on the supplemental is now. That is
why this bill is before the Senate and why we are moving forward with
this important supplemental to finish the job in Iraq and give the
Iraqis a chance to realize their aspirations.
As we all have recognized, the world changed dramatically on
September 11, 2001. It changed in that the unprovoked attack on America
required that America defend itself from the shadowy network of
international terrorism.
To protect American lives and buildings, the President announced his
intention to go after international terrorists wherever they were and
after the regimes that supported those efforts, whoever they were. He
warned that the costs would be high, that patience would be required,
but that America would win the struggle.
Today we are here to pay the price of freedom by moving this
supplemental forward. Many have already paid the ultimate price for
freedom, whether it was soldiers in Iraq or Afghanistan, civilians in
the World Trade Towers, passengers in airlines wrestling control from
terrorist hijackers, or the passengers themselves giving their own
lives. Yes, many have paid the ultimate price of freedom. The question
is, Will Congress pay?

Some say the price of freedom is too high and we have already paid
too much. So while we have won the war in Iraq, the struggle today is
whether America will pay the price to win the peace, just as we did
after World War II. This is a question, of course, we have struggled
with before.
In the past, we have sometimes won wars but actually lost the peace.
But not always. At the end of the Civil War, President Lincoln
foreswore revenge, retribution, and reparation payments against the
South. His spirit marched on as America paid for the reconstruction of
the South, ravaged by the effects of 5 years of a new, more devastating
type of warfare. Clearly, if we look at America today, we won that
peace.
At the end of World War II, America again won the peace. We did not
want the emergence of another Weimar Republic of Germany, which, racked
by debt and desolation, would spawn yet another new greater threat. Of
course, that was the result after World War I, costing us a second
payment of even more lives and paying the price for freedom in World
War II. Instead of a failed peace, such as we had after World War I, in
1948 the Marshall plan of aid and trade inaugurated a restoration of
Europe, a halt to Communism and an unprecedented expansion of freedom
and peace.
This is a picture of President Truman signing the Marshall plan in
1948. Interestingly enough, that was in the middle of a tough
Presidential election. It would have been easy for the Republican-
controlled Congress to have politicized that effort, to have criticized
President Truman for advocating that kind of spending on the
reconstruction of Europe, but instead they came together on a
bipartisan basis.
Arthur Vandenberg, Joseph Barton, and the other Republicans who were
in the majority in the Congress that year joined hands with President
Truman and said: Let's make this bipartisan, let's finish the job in
Europe, let's do it right and give the Europeans a chance to develop
democracy and freedom, something that was lost after World War I.
Today we face the very same challenges. Historians may very well
record that now is when the American Millennium began anew, and an
unprecedented expansion phase, not of America herself, but of the idea
that America represents and shares with all freedom-loving countries.

Through one of history's great ironies, the very ideas that were
attacked on September 11, 2001, American ideas like democracy,
individual freedom, limited government, and free markets--these ideas
when attacked did not retreat but were revitalized, not just here but
in countries where history records little evidence of even the most
basic human rights.
But now, here, today, the scribes of history can say this is when
civilization, freedom, and peace began a new march forward, rather than
a stagnant period of isolationism of war, oppression, and decline.
I agree this will be the defining debate of this Congress. As history
hangs in the balance, as the world wonders whether America will promote
the freedom and democracy we brought to Western Europe and Japan after
World War II, and to Eastern Europe and Russia after the cold war
victory, America should look on this debate with hope and fear. America
should hope we in Congress will come together to give peace and freedom
a birth in a region not known for it, but we fear that politics may
prevent that.
The challenge we face today to which I alluded earlier is to come
together behind the President's request, like the Congress did on a
bipartisan basis for President Truman and the Marshall plan: to give
Iraq a true opportunity to become a bastion of democracy and freedom in
the Middle East.
This bill signing I referred to earlier was the first of a total of
$10.9 billion appropriated for the Marshall plan during 1949 to 1951,
to rebuild Europe and Japan. When you adjust that for inflation, that
is equivalent to about $83 billion in today's dollars, over 4 times
what the President is calling for in the rebuilding of Iraq. The
Marshall plan was four times larger than what the President is asking
us to do today in rebuilding Iraq. Polling data back in that era, 1948,
showed only 68 percent of Americans had heard of the Marshall plan, and
only half of those who had heard of it approved of it. Back in 1948,
clearly, spending money to rebuild Europe was not popular, but
Republicans and Democrats put aside their differences, rallied behind
President Truman and, as I indicated earlier, people like Arthur
Vandenberg of Michigan, Charles Eaton of New Jersey, and Joseph Martin
of Massachusetts, along with others in a Republican-controlled
Congress, joined hands with President Truman to get the job done.
We need leaders like the Vandenbergs and Martins, leaders like those
who crossed the aisle to enact President Truman's Marshall plan to
rebuild Europe and Japan. We need those leaders today. The election is
13 months away. Let's not start it this soon. Let's do the right thing
here in the Senate to give Iraq a real opportunity to achieve its
dreams. Let's do what is right for America. The politics will take care
of itself in the next year.
What I had hoped for was a high level of bipartisanship.
Unfortunately, we have gotten a high level of politics out of all of
this. This is the first great military challenge to America in the new
millennium. We hear calls out on the Presidential campaign trail for
the President's impeachment. One Member of the Senate said that. Or
regime change, said another Member of the Senate running for the
Presidency. We heard the war for Iraq was a fraud and that the removal
of an unbelievably brutal dictator was described by one candidate as
``supposedly'' a good thing. We hear there is no chance for military
success, like that of World War I, World War II, Korea, the cold war,
or Desert Storm, that gave freedom to Western Europe, Japan, North
Africa, South Korea, Russia, Eastern Europe, or Kuwait. We are told our
military efforts can only end in a Vietnam-style quagmire and failure.
We hear that paying the price to win the peace and bring our soldiers
home is too much.
And last, and most destructively, we hear every benefit of the doubt
given to a brutal dictator, while every conceivable doubt is hurled
upon this administration, our intelligence networks, and our allies.
It should not be that way and it doesn't have to be that way. We can
come together. The President's plan says yes, let's make aid and trade
work together, not just to rebuild Iraq and end the terrorism, but to
build a working democratic state based on individual freedom and free
markets. That is how to win the peace. But, frankly, in its details,
democracy and peace is pretty routine stuff. It doesn't get a lot

[[Page S12313]]

of press. Winning the war, that gets a lot of press. So do efforts that
threaten the peace. But winning the peace itself involves terribly
mundane stuff.

For example, taking out a terrorist training camp is news. But
building police training academies is not. The former wins the war, the
latter wins the peace.
Using bulldozers to cover the populations of whole Iraqi towns in
mass graves is part of the horrific terror that gets press coverage.
But using garbage trucks to keep towns clean and safe from pestilence
and disease is the boredom of peacetime. When humans are treated as
refuse, that is a sign of war. When human refuse is treated, that is a
mark of peacetime.
Garbage trucks and police academies are the mundane, boring signposts
that peace and democracy are progressing. We see all sorts of routine
signs of progress that get no press. Fifty-eight of the largest cities
of Iraq have hired police forces. Some 70,000 Iraqis are patrolling the
streets of their country. No one reports this--no one. Medical supplies
are flowing to hospitals, with regular paychecks going to doctors and
nurses. No one is reporting that. Vaccinations are available across the
country and antimalaria sprays are proceeding. No one is reporting
that. Again, more mundane stuff that makes for peace and progress.
Airports are reopening and so are ports. Provisional representative
councils are formed in major cities, especially in Baghdad, and 150
newspapers are publishing, with foreign publications, radio and
television broadcasts also available. That is a radical change over
there, but show me the press clippings covering the progress. I haven't
seen any--none.
We see other signs of progress we would call a normal life--120,000
Baghdad students returning to classrooms last May; 1.2 million school
kits are being prepared for the coming school year which started this
week; 5 million math and science books will be distributed. Banks are
opening, crops are being harvested, the Baghdad symphony is performing,
bookstores are reopening, and artists are displaying their works. None
of this is reported because it is not newsworthy here in the United
States. But it is news there, and proof of peace and democracy
sprouting up all over Iraq.
Peace and democracy are sprouting in Iraq, but you would be hard
pressed to find news reports here because mainly failure and setbacks
count as news. And, of course, certain papers and broadcasters focus on
the Presidential candidates, calling the President's efforts a failure.
We should not be too surprised. Presidential politics is the most
powerful political force in America. But I urge people to ask
themselves, why didn't Presidential politics destroy the Marshall plan
back in 1948, closer to a Presidential election year than we are now?
Presidential politics did not destroy the Marshall plan because Members
of the Senate on a bipartisan basis rose above that and did what was
right for America and right for Europe.
I believe it was due to the fact that Republicans and Democrats alike
wanted to ensure history did not repeat itself. They knew of their
friends and comrades who died in World War II because they failed to
win the peace after World War I. The threat of poverty and despair in
Europe was real, and so was the effort by communists to take advantage
of that. But mostly, they didn't want the sacrifice of their sons,
brothers, fathers and husbands in World War II to be in vain. to them
and us, lives and freedom should be more important than power and
politics.
So I ask, can we set aside politics and ask what happens if we fail
in Iraq? Perhaps we are not motivated by the good that can come from a
democratic Iraq. But surely we should consider the disaster that can
befall the world if in this war against terrorism, we fail to bring
peace and democracy to Iraq and Afghanistan. Our children and their
children will have lost their chance for peace, freedom and prosperity.
This is a defining moment, but if we look after the interest of the
next generation rather than the next election--like President Truman
and the Republican Congress did back in 1948 with the Marhsall plan--we
can do something great for Iraq, for the world and for our children.
So, I ask us to think of the future generations like those who formed
the Marshall plan considered in their deliberations. I ask us to come
together to do what is right for future generations. I ask for unity,
and to promote that end, I will offer an amendment that should unify
this body. Let us set aside the rancor and agree that the Armed Forces
of the United States have performed brilliantly in Operation Enduring
Freedom in Afghanistan and in Operation Iraq Freedom in Iraq.
Since October 7, 2001, when the Armed Forces of the United States and
its coalition allies launched military operations in Afghanistan,
designed as Operation Enduring Freedom, our soldiers and allies have
removed the Taliban regime, eliminated Afghanistan's terrorist
infrastructure, and captured significant and numerous members of Al
Qaeda.
Since March 19, 2003, when the Armed Forces of the United States and
its coalition allies launched military operations, designated as
Operation Iraqi Freedom, our soldiers have removed Saddam Hussein's
regime, eliminated Iraq's terrorist infrastructure, ended Iraq's
illicit and illegal programs to acquire weapons of mass destruction,
and captured significant international terrorists.
During all this time, during the heat of battle, our soldiers have
acted with all the efficiency that war time commands, but all the
compassion and understanding that an emerging peace requires. They have
acted in the finest tradition of U.S. soldiers and are to be commended
by this body.
That is what this situation requires of us today. I hope as we move
forward with this debate on the supplemental, Members will remember the
importance of pulling together to finish the job in Iraq.
I yield.

Exhibit 1

Excerpts From A Recent National Democratic Institute Report on Iraq

``The past half-century provides ample proof that democracy
is more than just another form of government; it is also a
powerful generator of international security, prosperity and
peace.''--Madeleine K. Albright, NDI Chairman
An Explosion of democratic politics: ``After three days in
Baghdad it is already clear that NDI will find fertile ground
for democracy promotion initiatives on a scale not seen since
the heady days of the fall of the Berlin wall. There has been
a virtual explosion of politics in Iraq's capital city with
as many as 200 parties and movements having made themselves
known to the Coalition Provisional Authority.''
The Iraqis are grateful for their liberation. ``NDI's
overwhelming finding--in the north, south, Baghdad, and among
secular, religious, Sunni, Shiite, and Kurdish groups in both
urban and rural areas--is a grateful welcoming of the demise
of Saddam's regime and a sense that this is a pivotal moment
in Iraq's history. A leading member of a newly formed
umbrella movement, the Iraq Coalition for Democracy, put it
this way, ``We already see the positive results the Americans
have brought--we are free to talk to you, to organize a
movement and party, free to meet and demonstrate and all of
this was made possible by the Americans.''
Significant evidence of support for the United States:
``In Kirkuk, there was a large painted sign reading, ``Thank
you USA!'' in English and in Kurdish. In Erbil and
Suleimaniya, there were many ``Thank you to the USA'',
``Thank you to President George Bush'' banners as well as
``peace and prosperity come with democracy.''
Overwhelming support for liberation, but lack of stability
or economic opportunity erode support for the U.S.: ``Across
the board, the people of NDI met with in southern Iraq
supported the forceful ouster of Saddam--a person many
described as ``Nero'' and a ``criminal towards his people''.
Although southerners were clearly conscious of the
discrimination they had suffered under Saddam's Baathist
rule, many were quick to add that poor security conditions
and a lack of basic necessities are having a negative impact
on attitudes toward the U.S.''
``The main findings of the research reveal that, in every
community, the Iraqis are grateful for the ouster of Saddam
Hussein but have a strong desire for order and governance.
They feel a mix of excitement and fear about the prospect
of freedom and democracy, and have differing views about
the role of Islam in the country's new political order.''
Security and jobs are a precondition to Democracy. ``One
former general, previously part of the Free Officers
Movement, summed up the state of Iraqi ``anxious
ambivalence'' this way, ``People need a rest. They need
security and jobs and, maybe after a year they can be
educated about political parties and democracy and then they
can choose heir future properly.''
Iraqi frustrations are due to fear and uncertainty, not
hostility to the United States. ``Faced with rising crime,
uncertain economic prospects, and chaotic daily conditions,
complaining--to anyone who will listen--has become a national
pastime. Part of

[[Page S12314]]

the problem is a perceived lack of access to those in
authority, but mostly the complaints are a symptom of
uncertainty, not an expression of hostility to the United
States or its aims in for Iraq.''
The Iraqis need our help now. ``Time is not on the side of
the coalition or Iraqi democrats. Current conditions play
into the hands of extremists--religious and nationalist--who
point to lack of progress as proof of the need for a strong
hand.''
Chaos and slow progress feed the forces of radicalism. ``In
fact, many Iraqi political forces are benefiting from the
societal chaos. Islamic forces, including the Shia dominated
Da'awa party and Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution
in Iraq, with their inherent legitimacy, established
networks, and communications facilities through the Mosque,
are flourishing and establishing positions of dominance in
Shiite slums, small cities and the underdeveloped
countryside.''
Time to act on the supplemental is now. ``In conclusion,
this is not a time for despair or second-guessing but for
action. There is an urgent need for democratic education,
party strengthening, for coalition building and for material
assistance to democratic movements and organizations. The
political vacuum is being filled by those with an interest in
destroying and separating rather than uniting and building--
only concerted efforts to strengthen the democratic middle
can help stem that tide.''

Mr. REID. Mr. President, has the distinguished majority whip yielded
his time?
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Kentucky controls
an additional 1 minute. The minority side has 20 minutes remaining.
Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I am going to support the amendment
introduced by Senator McConnell for one reason and one reason only: I
support our troops, and I share the sentiment all Americans have in
holding our men and women in uniform in the highest regard.
It is a fact that there are differences in this country about United
States policy toward Iraq. But there is no disagreement that our
military personnel have been brave and courageous. They have made
sacrifices for our country and more than 300 have made the ultimate
sacrifice. I grieve for their loss and my heart goes out to their
families and loved ones.
Families throughout America are proud of their sons, daughters,
fathers and mothers who are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. They are
anxious about reports of daily attacks on United States soldiers in
central Iraq and are hopeful that already lengthy deployments are not
further extended. I share both their pride and their anxiety. I, too,
think about our troops every day. I think about their families. I thing
about their sacrifices.
The McConnell amendment makes note of these sacrifices. It also
commends organizations such as the USO and Operation Dear Abby that
help support our troops. The amendment also states that there should be
appropriate ceremonies to honor and welcome them home. I hope these
ceremonies occur sooner rather than later.
California has a rich military tradition. Military personnel from
across the State and from all branches have been serving bravely in
Iraq and Afghanistan. I am especially proud of these military men and
women and wish them a safe return home.
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, on March 20 of this year, the Senate passed
S. Res. 95, a resolution commending the President and the men and women
of the United States Armed Forces, and the civilian personnel
supporting them, for their efforts in the war in Iraq. I cosponsored
that resolution. While there was some language in that resolution I
would have changed or deleted, I felt it was appropriate and drafted in
a relatively non-political, balanced way such that even those of us who
had opposed the resolution authorizing the use of unilateral, pre-
emptive force could support.
Today, the Republican leadership has put forward another resolution,
which again commends the President and the men and women of the Armed
Forces, as well as the civilian personnel who have supported them. I
will also vote for this resolution. Of course we commend the troops,
their families, and the Defense Department's civilian personnel, for
their courage and sacrifice for their country. I have commended the
extraordinary efforts of our troops in virtually every statement I have
made about Iraq.
But this resolution goes further than S. Res. 95, in ways that I
disagree with. It commends the contribution of defense contractors, for
example. I have nothing against defense contractors. Many deserve
recognition for their indispensable, innovative contributions to the
success of our Armed Forces, including defense contractors in my own
State of Vermont. It is, for example, these companies that developed
the precision-guided weapons that helped to reduce the number of
civilian casualties in Iraq. But other contractors have engaged in
practices that have bilked American taxpayers out of many millions of
dollars, overcharging for their services or manipulating the bidding
process. I do not commend those contractors.
I also disagree with some of the wording of this resolution, because
it may leave the wrong impression. For example, at one point it states
``Whereas the United States pursued sustained diplomatic, political,
and economic efforts to remove those threats peacefully.'' It is true
that the administration went to the United Nations, belatedly, under
pressure from Congress and the rest of the world, to seek support for
the use of force against Saddam Hussein. But it went to the United
Nations with an attitude of ``you're either with us or against us,''
and when they did not get everything they wanted as quickly as they
wanted it, they prematurely abandoned the diplomatic process and
launched a unilateral military attack for the purported purpose of
upholding U.N. resolutions without the support of the U.N. Security
Council. The administration's diplomatic and political efforts were
grudging, half hearted, and ineffective.
In addition, I am concerned, and disappointed, that this resolution
makes no mention whatsoever of our diplomats and aid workers who are
working tirelessly in Iraq under extremely dangerous and difficult
conditions. Their bravery and sacrifice should also be recognized.
Mr. President, we want Iraq to become a democratic, prosperous
nation. But let's be honest. We know why the Republican leadership
hastily drafted this resolution last night. It is increasingly obvious
to the American people that the war in Iraq, where United States
soldiers are being killed and wounded every day 4 months after the
President declared the ``mission accomplished,'' is going to drag on
for years and cost hundreds of billions of dollars. The $87 billion
supplemental appropriations bill we are considering is fraught with
problems, and even Republicans are realizing that it is unpopular with
a majority of their constituents. Compounding that, the White House is
facing an internal probe of the leak of the identity of a covert CIA
employee. So what do they do, they trot out another ``feel good''
resolution praising the President, in an effort to divert attention
from the real issues. We have seen this too many times before.
Again, I will vote for this resolution because I am concerned about
our troops and want them to know that each and every one of us supports
them as they risk their lives to bring peace and security to Iraq. But
I would hope that in the future we do better than these simplistic,
politically motivated resolutions.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I share the reservations of many of my
colleagues about the McConnell amendment. Each and every Senator
supports our troops in Iraq, but many of us do not support the decision
by the Bush administration to go to war.
This amendment states the pride and admiration we all feel for our
troops, their families, and all of those who aided in the effort. But
it also contains several provisions many of us disagree with.
The President has stated, there is no evidence that Saddam Hussein
was involved in the attacks on the World Trade Center, yet this
amendment leaves the impression that he was. This amendment also states
that our military action brought an end to Iraq's illegal programs to
acquire weapons of mass destruction, but no evidence whatever has been
found that Saddam had even begun to reactivate these programs of the
past.
In addition, the amendment commends the President and Secretary
Rumsfeld for planning and carrying out Operation Iraqi Freedom. No one
doubted we would win the war. but we had no plan to win the peace, and
Secretary Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz misled the President
and the country about the need to go to war.

[[Page S12315]]

As the evidence now makes clear, Iraq was not an imminent threat to
our national security. Iraq did not have longstanding ties to terrorist
groups. Iraq was not developing nuclear weapons. No weapons of mass
destruction have been found in Iraq.
It is wrong to put American lives on the line for a dubious cause.
Many of us continue to believe that this was the wrong war at the wrong
time. There were alternatives short of a premature rush to a unilateral
war that could have accomplished our goals in Iraq with fare fewer
casualties and far less damage to our goals in the war against
terrorism.
This resolution commemorates Operation Iraqi Freedom as if the war
were over and our men and women are coming home. We know this is not
the case, despite the President's declaration of ``mission
accomplished'' aboard the aircraft carrier 5 long months ago.
Our service men and women still face constant danger in Iraq.
American lives are lost almost daily in Iraq. They were told they would
be welcomed as liberators. Instead, they are increasingly resented as
occupiers and are under siege every day. They face surprise attacks and
deadly ambushes from unknown enemies. It is increasingly difficult to
tell friend from foe. The average number of attacks against American
soldiers recently increased from 13 to 22 each day.
Three hundred and sixteen Americans have been killed in Iraq since
the war began. In the 5 months since President Bush declared ``mission
accomplished,'' 178 American soldiers have died. Ten soldiers from
Massachusetts have made the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq. Each day
another eight soldiers or Marines are wounded in Iraq.
These are not just statistics. Each fallen soldier has someone who
mourns their loss. That loss--whether it's a husband or wife, a son or
daughter, a brother or sister, or a father or mother--weighs heavily on
us as well, and we must do our best to see that their sacrifice is not
in vain.
The administration still has no credible plan to end this war. Our
troops deserve a plan that will bring in adequate foreign forces to
share the burden, restore stability and build democracy in Iraq, and
bring us closer to the day when our troops will come home with honor.
Our soldiers' lives are at stake. Patriotism is not the issue.
Support for our troops is not the issue. The safety of the 140,000
American servicemen and women serving in Iraq today is the issue, and,
it is our solemn responsibility to question--and question vigorously--
the administration's current request for funds. So far, the
administration has failed--and failed utterly--to provide a plausible
plan for the future of Iraq and to ensure the safety of our troops.
Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, West Virginians know sacrifice. Families
from the Mountain State have lost loved ones in both Iraq and
Afghanistan. Members of the West Virginia National Guard and the
members of the Reserves have been deployed around the world, their
lives on the line each day in the most dangerous of circumstances. Our
troops deserve to be commended, as do all Americans who have supported
them: their husbands and wives; their sons and daughters; and all the
members of their communities.
I have grave concerns for the situations that our troops now find
themselves in. In Iraq, constant attacks have caused the toll in
American lives to more than double after May 1. In Afghanistan, which
is in danger of becoming the forgotten war, Taliban and al-Qaida
terrorists are hiding in the mountains, regaining their strength, and
plotting against us.
I will vote for the resolution that is before the Senate, but only
because we must not offend those who have sacrificed in the wars in
which the United States is now engaged. It should be a moral obligation
to support those who have lost loved ones in battle, and those who wear
our Nation's uniform.
But I do not agree with many of the where-as clauses to the
resolution that are before the Senate. It is wrong to commingle the
images of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. I do not agree that our
attack on Iraq is part of the ``Global War on Terrorism.'' It is
misleading to imply that the United States had run out of diplomatic
options before attacking Iraq. It is dangerous to think that we have
eliminated Afghanistan's terrorist infrastructure. The first three
pages of this resolution lay out a distorted history of how we came to
be involved in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. We need to stop the
spin and distortions. They do a disservice to the public.
Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, I voted in favor of the McConnell
amendment today, because I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiments in
its resolve clauses expressing the Senate's tremendous admiration and
appreciation for our men and women in uniform who have served in
Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. Their
contributions and their service deserve our unified and enduring
support.
However, the findings contained in the amendment seem to link Saddam
Hussein's regime to the terrorist attacks on the United States that
occurred on September 11, 2001. No evidence supports such a link, and
those who continue to confuse these issues do the American people a
great disservice, as they encourage an unfocused and unwise approach to
our first national security priority, the fight against terrorism.
Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I am proud to have voted for Senator
McConnell's resolution commending America's Armed Forces. It is right
for us to thank our troops for their service. It is right to thank
military families for their sacrifice. It is right to thank great
organizations like the USO for their support to our men and women in
uniform.
However, I am puzzled by some of the findings in the McConnell
amendment.
We were all told last year that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction
and was ready to use them. Well, the jury is still out on that. But
press reports suggest that Dr. Kay's team has not yet found any actual
weapons. So I am not sure it is accurate to say the war ended Iraq's
WMD programs.
The Bush administration now acknowledges that there is no evidence of
ties between Saddam Hussein's regime and al-Qaida and the September 11
attacks. Yet the amendment seems to combine Operation Enduring Freedom
in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom as ``two campaigns in the
Global War on Terrorism.'' I am not sure what ``terrorist
infrastructure'' was destroyed in Iraq. Some reports indicate the
terrorist presence in Iraq has actually increased since the collapse of
Saddam Hussein's brutal regime.
I just don't want anyone to think my vote means I agree with every
word of this amendment. I voted for the McConnell amendment because I
absolutely stand behind our troops and their families.
Mrs. LINCOLN. Mr. President, I will vote in favor of Senator
McConnell's sense of the Senate amendment because it expressed strong
support for our Nation's armed services and their success in
accomplishing the important mission to overthrow the regime of Saddam
Hussein. I am especially proud of the men and women in uniform from
Arkansas who represent the best and brightest our country has to offer.
It is vital that we continue to support our troops in every way we can,
as they continue to come under attack in Iraq.
As Congress continues debate on this legislation and related bills in
the future, I believe we in Congress have a responsibility to exercise
careful oversight of the administration's plan to rebuild Iraq and to
ask tough questions about specific plans, objectives, and results to
ensure our mission is accomplished. To that end, we must realistically
assess the United States efforts in the war on terror. While the
dedication and efficiency of the men and women who comprise our
military is unparalleled, recent difficulties in Iraq demonstrate that
there is much work left to be done.
Mr. HOLLINGS. Mr. President, there is no question that I, along with
every Member of this body, support the troops. But with respect to the
amendment proposed by the Senator from Kentucky, the majority ought to
be ashamed for wasting the Senate's time with this political booby
trap.
The amendment states that Saddam was a threat to our national
security. He was not. We had him contained in the north and the south
with overflights, and had the weapons inspectors

[[Page S12316]]

back in doing their work in Iraq. The amendment states that the United
States pursued sustained diplomatic, political, and economic efforts to
remove the so-called threat peacefully. That is wrong. We said to the
United Nations, ``Get out of the way. You're irrelevant.'' We said to
the international community, ``You're either with us or against us.''
Before we removed Saddam, we removed Hans Blix. The amendment says we
eliminated terrorist infrastructure in Afghanistan and Iraq. Just read
the morning paper and you will know that is not true. They have plenty
of terrorist infrastructure, and they are killing our soldiers every
day.
As I have said many times before, the majority is only interested in
the needs of the campaign, not the needs of the country. We have
serious work to do, and they are playing political games. If we really
supported our troops, we would pay for this war. Instead, we are
telling our troops that they not only have to fight the war, they have
to come home and pay for it, too.
Mr. REID. I say to my friend from Kentucky, if the Senator yields
back his time, we will yield back our time and go to a vote on this
matter.
Mr. McCONNELL. I yield the remainder of my time.
Mr. REID. We yield the time on our side.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. All time has been yielded back.
Mr. REID. I ask for the yeas and nays.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Is there a sufficient second? There
is a sufficient second.
The question is on agreeing to the amendment (No. 1795), as modified.
The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. REID. I announce that the Senator from Florida (Mr. Graham) is
necessarily absent.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Are there any other Senators in the
Chamber desiring to vote?
The result was announced--yeas 98, nays 1, as follows:

[Rollcall Vote No. 372 Leg.]

YEAS--98

Akaka
Alexander
Allard
Allen
Baucus
Bayh
Bennett
Biden
Bingaman
Bond
Boxer
Breaux
Brownback
Bunning
Burns
Byrd
Campbell
Cantwell
Carper
Chafee
Chambliss
Clinton
Cochran
Coleman
Collins
Conrad
Cornyn
Corzine
Craig
Crapo
Daschle
Dayton
DeWine
Dodd
Dole
Domenici
Dorgan
Durbin
Edwards
Ensign
Enzi
Feingold
Feinstein
Fitzgerald
Frist
Graham (SC)
Grassley
Gregg
Hagel
Harkin
Hatch
Hutchison
Inhofe
Inouye
Jeffords
Johnson
Kennedy
Kerry
Kohl
Kyl
Landrieu
Lautenberg
Leahy
Levin
Lieberman
Lincoln
Lott
Lugar
McCain
McConnell
Mikulski
Miller
Murkowski
Murray
Nelson (FL)
Nelson (NE)
Nickles
Pryor
Reed
Reid
Roberts
Rockefeller
Santorum
Sarbanes
Schumer
Sessions
Shelby
Smith
Snowe
Specter
Stabenow
Stevens
Sununu
Talent
Thomas
Voinovich
Warner
Wyden

NAYS--1

Hollings

NOT VOTING--1

Graham (FL)

The amendment (No. 1795), as modified, was agreed to.
Mr. REID. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so
ordered.

Amendment No. 1796, As Modified

Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, I send a modification of my amendment, No.
1796, to the desk.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The amendment is so modified.
The amendment, as modified, is as follows:

At the end of title III, add the following:
Sec. __. (a) Provision of Funds for Security and
Stabilization of Iraq Through Partial Suspension of
Reductions in Highest Income Tax Rate for Individual
Taxpayers.--The table contained in paragraph (2) of section
1(i) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (relating to
(relating to reductions in rates after June 30, 2001) is
amended to read as follows:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
The corresponding percentages shall
be substituted for  the following
``In the case of taxable years                percentages:
beginning during calendar year:  -------------------------------------
28%      31%      36%      39.6%
------------------------------------------------------------------------
2001..............................    27.5%    30.5%    35.5%      39.1%
2002..............................    27.0%    30.0%    35.0%      38.6%
2003 and 2004.....................    25.0%    28.0%    33.0%      35.0%
2005 and thereafter...............    25.0%    28.0%    33.0%   38.2%''.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

(b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by this section
shall apply to taxable years beginning after December 31,
2004.
(c) Application of EGTRRA Sunset to This Section.--The
amendment made by this section shall be subject to title IX
of the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of
2001 to the same extent and in the same manner as the
provision of such Act to which such amendment relates.

Mr. REID. Will the Senator yield?
Mr. BIDEN. I am happy to yield.
Mr. REID. We have spoken to the chief sponsors of this amendment,
Senators Biden and Kerry. There is a tentative agreement on our side as
to how much time will be used. The floor staffs are working now to see
if we can enter into an agreement in the next little bit. In the
meantime, rather than waste valuable floor time, Senator Biden is going
to begin his debate.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Delaware.
Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, I am prepared to enter into a time
agreement. In the meantime, rather than waste time, let me begin to
discuss my amendment.
We had a debate yesterday, an opening debate about whether we should
be moving forward with this legislation for $87 billion to fund the
war. Again, for those who may be listening, I want to state where I, as
they say in the vernacular, come from on this score.
I have been one among many, from Senator Reed, former West Point
graduate, an Army officer, a U.S. Senator, to John McCain, to Chuck
Hagel, on both sides of the aisle, among those who have said that our
biggest problem is we have not, quite frankly, devoted sufficient
resources in a timely way to winning the peace in Iraq. So I began from
the premise that there is no doubt we have to spend billions of more
dollars. There is no doubt we have to keep in Iraq tens of thousands of
American troops for some time. As a matter of fact, I said that as long
ago as July of 2002.
I approach this thing from the perspective of one who thinks we must
do more. I have several basic problems with the approach we are taking.
I know the Presiding Officer and I had a very brief conversation about
this. He made reference yesterday to me, that I was somewhat exercised
in my presentation yesterday. I was. I am, because I think there is
such a gigantic opportunity here to enhance the security interests of
the United States.

So, again, the reason I bother to say this is, I think there are two
serious problems with the approach the President is taking now relative
to this $87 billion. One is, I think that after examination--and I will
have several more amendments before this debate is over--I think there
is some padding in this reconstruction money.
I am one who believes you cannot bring security to Iraq without
bringing basic services to Iraq. I think there is a direct and
immediate correlation. Those who say you can separate support for the
military and reconstruction money either have not been to Iraq or don't
think we should be in Iraq or, with all due respect, don't understand
the dynamics.
The degree to which clean water doesn't flow, the degree to which
young women are being raped in the streets, the degree to which police
officers are afraid to go to their stations and do their job, the
degree to which the electric lights do not go on, the degree to which
the oil pipelines are blown up, there is a direct correlation between
that and the danger posed to our troops, the danger posed to our being
able to preserve the peace or bring about or win the peace. So I don't
make that dichotomy between reconstruction moneys and moneys relating
to ``supporting our troops.''
Reconstruction money will support our troops. It supports our troops.
My disagreement with the President is that--I am not talking about past
disagreements and mistakes made or not

[[Page S12317]]

made, in my view, just from this moment on--I think if you look at the
reconstruction funds, some of it is--maybe not intentionally--inflated.
For example, there is a provision in there for x number of pickup
trucks. We were not talking about Humvees or military vehicles. They
need pickup trucks. The government needs them for basic, mundane
purposes. Well, in the authorization here, we are going to pay $32,000
for a pickup truck. I can take them to a nice Chrysler plant in my
State and get them for $18,000.
We are also talking about building prison cells. I spent some time,
along with my friend, Senator Lugar, and my friend, Senator Hagel, out
at the police training academy in Baghdad, and we talked to--I might
add, we have a first-class team there. These are serious guys. These
guys know their way around. They have been in Bosnia, Kosovo, and
Afghanistan, and they understand this. There is money in here that
comes to $50,000 per prison cell. We need to build prisons. There are
no functioning prisons in Iraq. We have to build them.
By the way, the guy running our prison operation there, when asked
how long it would take if he had all the resources he needed, he said
it would take a couple years to get a prison system up and running.
But that is not the point. We are going to pay $55,000 per bed in an
Iraqi prison. We pay half that here in the United States of America. We
are in a country, I might add, where the building specs and
requirements are less than they are here. So I think we have to be
responsible and take a look at the details of this.
So my first concern is about whether or not the money is being
efficaciously allocated. That is a responsibility of oversight that we
have. That is our job. We can do it in a timely way and we will get
this finished within a week or so and get it done. That is the first
concern I have, in a practical sense, on what we are going to do on the
floor.

The second concern is my monumental concern. My friend from Utah--and
we say that lightly, but he really is my friend--a conservative
Republican--and for those of you who think none of us get along around
here, we have very different views, but we are close friends. I can say
to him that my biggest problem is how we pay for this. That is what I
want to talk about right now because that is the second significant
element of my concern on the immediate question before us: Do we
appropriate or authorize to be appropriated $87 billion or do we
appropriate $87 billion for this effort? I want to speak to that. That
is what my amendment is about. That is what is before the Senate now.
At the outset, the first fellow with whom I spoke about this, the guy
whose brainchild it was, along with me, is my friend from
Massachusetts, John Kerry. As a matter of fact, immediately after my
floating this idea on one of the national shows--``Meet The Press,'' or
whatever it was--I immediately got a call from Senator Kerry saying he
had been thinking along the same lines and could we work together to do
this. This is a joint effort, and we are joined by Senator Feinstein,
who feels strongly about it, and a number of others.
I wish to acknowledge at the front end here how we got to this point.
I wish to explain the modification I sent to the desk and go into the
details of why I think this is an important and necessary and
responsible amendment. Again, remember, this is not coming from a guy
who didn't support the war, who won't support the funding; it is coming
from a guy who thinks we are going to have to come up with this $87
billion, but we are going to have to come up with billions more. I wish
the President would be as straightforward. This is a downpayment; this
isn't the end of the road.
Now, initially, I had an amendment because I didn't have the detailed
numbers from the Joint Tax Committee, the Finance Committee, and from
outside experts, such as Brookings and Citizens For Fair Taxation and
the like, because it takes a while to run these numbers. So, initially,
we had put in an amendment that said we would authorize--which is
constitutional--or direct the head of the IRS to find this $87 billion
from a specific category of taxpayers. We now have hard numbers. The
hard numbers are very straightforward.
In order to pay now for the $87 billion we are about to appropriate,
we are proposing that the tax rate for the wealthiest Americans, which
has dropped this year from above 39 percent down to 35 percent--and I
am not arguing about that--and in order to find $87 billion to pay for
this, we would have to go back under our formula to that roughly 1
percent of the taxpayers--actually, the top bracket is less than 1
percent of the taxpayers--and say to them your tax rate is going to go
back up in the years 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010 to 38.2
percent. So that is what I sent up to the desk. It was a detail that
wasn't in my original amendment because we didn't have it from Joint
Tax. We didn't have it laid out. So that is a brief explanation of the
modification.
Now, let's go back and review the bidding here if we can. First, we
can pay for this supplemental several ways. One, we can pay for it, as
the President has suggested, by increasing the deficit. If this is
added to the projected deficit for 2004, the deficit for 2004 will rise
to $567 billion for that one year--next year. If we do not add it to
the deficit, the projected deficit at this moment would be down,
obviously, around $480 billion--still a gigantic amount but $87 billion
less. The reason I am so opposed to doing that is on equitable grounds
and grounds of economic recovery. On equitable grounds--and I know this
sounds a little political the way I am going to say this, but it is
factually accurate--on equitable grounds, we, the grownups in this
Chamber--and the average age here is probably roughly 50, I would say--
we are going to be asking these young pages walking down the aisle to
pay this bill. Literally, we are going to ask them to pay. We are not
going to pay. If we can't do it my way, they pay. The President--I
quoted him yesterday--in his last State of the Union Address said we
are not going to pass on these debts and problems--at the end, I will
actually give an exact quote--basically he said we are not going to
pass these responsibilities to fight terror and to pay for it on to
other generations. That is exactly what we are doing here.

For those of you who think that may not be a very compelling argument
and those of you who voted for the tax cut because you wanted to spur
economic recovery--a legitimate argument; I disagree with the way it is
formulated and voted against it but a legitimate argument--look at what
is happening now: As the deficit has been projected to be 480, or
thereabouts--and the Presiding Officer and my friend from Utah and my
two colleagues from California and Massachusetts know more about this
than I do--what has happened? Long-term rates have already begun to
rise. What does the market say? Why are long-term interest rates
rising? Because of the projected deficits. That is a fact. They are
already rising.
I respectfully suggest that taking $87 billion out of a 10-year tax
cut of $1.8 trillion has no impact--none--on economic recovery,
particularly since it is taken out over a 6-year period in small
increments beginning in 2005. But if you are worried about the impact
on the economy and the ability to sustain a recovery, you better be
looking at the debt.
I would argue that from a principle of equity, as well as sound
economic principles related to the recovery, adding this $87 billion to
the already gargantuan projected deficit--and it will be higher, by the
way, because that does not even count prescription drugs, that does not
count the other initiatives the President says we are going to do and
Democrats say they want to do, it does not even count those programs
yet, so we know it is going to be a heck of a lot higher--but to add
$87 billion on top of that can do nothing but jeopardize a long-term
recovery.
The second way we can pay for this, which is very popular--and I am
sort of the skunk at the family picnic on this on my side of the
aisle--is to let the Iraqis pay for it. Some are saying the Iraqis have
the second largest oil reserves in the world. Some of my Republican
friends are proposing this as well.
For example, we have a flooded home. We have a very competent county
executive dealing with this, and he says if we can pay for Iraq, the
Federal Government can pay for this. That is really compelling. I tell
you what, I am

[[Page S12318]]

kind of glad I am not running this year because I am going to oppose
it. To the average person and the above average person, this just seems
fair.
We hear people saying on the floor: If they had gold reserves of X
amount, we would indemnify ourselves; they have gold in the ground,
black gold. That is a very compelling case, except, as my mother would
say--God love her, and she is probably listening, so, mom, forgive me
if I get it wrong--she always used to say when I was young: Joey, don't
bite your nose off to spite your face. If we do that, we will be,
figuratively speaking, biting our nose off to spite our face.
Why? There are other countries around the world--in the Arab world,
the European world, Russia, other countries--that are owed almost $200
billion by Iraq, some say as high as $300 billion. Some of that is
direct loan payments; some is indemnification for the damage done by
Saddam when he invaded Kuwait, and so on.

What are we doing? We can either choose the World War I model or the
World War II model for a defeated nation. After World War I, we said:
Germany, this is all your fault. We want you to have a democracy, but,
by the way, in the meantime, pay off all these reparations, making it
virtually impossible--how many of us in grade school and college saw
that one cartoon that was in every single history book: A German lady
in a babushka carrying a wheelbarrow of deutsche marks to the butcher
shop.
I bet every one of you can remember that. It was in every textbook in
America. Why? It produced a little guy named Hitler to prey upon all of
the anger, all of the prejudice, all the furor of the German people.
Who thinks we can possibly establish a democracy in a country which,
I might add, has no history of any democratic institutions and was
never a country until 1919--who thinks we can establish a democracy
there saying, by the way, start off, folks, but before you do anything,
before you spend that $35 billion to redo your oil fields, before you
spend the money to do this or that, pay off the $200 billion, $300
billion in debt?
The President has been dead right. The President has been saying and
the Secretary of State has been saying we have to convince these other
nations to forgive that debt and write it off, as we did. Write it off.
On top of that, what did the President say at the United Nations? Not
well enough, in my view, with all due respect, but what did he say? He
said: United Nations, this is the world's problem. This is your
problem. Send money and send troops. Every one of us here are hoping
that Powell is very successful with a thing called the donors
conference that is coming up this month. We are going to be sitting
down with other nations of the world and saying: By the way, can you
guys ante in? We have roughly in the whole region close to 200,000
troops, and we have already spent $78 billion, and we are going to
spend another $87 billion. Can you kick in some money to rebuild this
country? Oh, and by the way, we want you to forgive the debt you are
owed. We want you to kick in money. We are not going to indemnify any
of your money, but, by the way, the $20 billion we put in for
reconstruction, we have a claim against Iraqi oil.
We are all intelligent people in this Chamber. We may be able to
indemnify this money, but we will have no Iraq to collect it from.
There will be nobody to collect it from because if this debt is not
forgiven and if more people do not get in the game, there is not going
to be peace in Iraq. It is not going to happen, and that is what I
meant when I said, as unpopular as it is, my dear old mom--mom, if you
are listening, you are right--we are about to bite our nose off to
spite our face. That is the second way we can do it, and I think it is
a disaster to do it that way.
There is a third way we can pay for this $87 billion. We can say a
very uncharacteristic thing around here: We are going to pay for it,
and we are going to pay for it now. We are not going to use our credit
card; we are going to do it now.
As Don Rumsfeld said, yes, this is a lot of money, but, yes, we have
the ability to pay for it, and he is dead right. Old Don, I want to
take a little bit of your money to pay for it. You are a 1 percenter,
and God bless you, let's pay for it.
OK, how do we pay for it? We can cut more programs.
As some have suggested, we can make college loans more expensive.
That saves the Government money. We can do as some have suggested and
cut across the board the income tax break we gave everybody. But guess
what. Poor folks and middle-class folks are already paying for Iraq. It
is their kids who are in Iraq. It is their kids in the National Guard.
It is their kids in the Regular Army. It is their kids who are already
there.
Guess who is getting hurt most by this unemployed recovery. Middle-
class and poor folks. I think the middle-class folks need a tax break,
and so I think it would be unequitable and unfair to go back now and
say, by the way, you middle-class folks, you pay; you poor folks, you
pay. We have already decided the poor folks cannot get an earned income
tax credit for their kids, a child tax credit, which is a travesty. But
now we are going to raise their taxes slightly or reduce the tax cut?
So it seems to me there is a group of people who are as patriotic as
the poorest among us, the wealthy people. The thing I do not like about
politics is we all have a tendency to slip into--and I can honestly say
I have never done this in 33 years of holding office--class warfare.
The idea that because someone is a multimillionaire they are not as
patriotic as somebody who is making 25,000 bucks a year is a lie. The
wealthiest among us are as patriotic as any other group of people in
America.
I come from Delaware, a relatively wealthy State. I tried in two fora
in my State, and this is literally true, among some of the wealthiest
people in my State--in my State we can get them all together pretty
quickly. I am not being facetious about that. I mean that sincerely. I
asked the question at one gathering--both were social gatherings. The
first was a group of about 35 or 40 people, and I do not know this for
a fact, but I think all of them were clearly in the top 1 percent tax
bracket. The way the conversation started was they said to me: You
know, Joe, what is going on in Iraq? What about this? What about that?
It was a cocktail party at the home of a partner in a major law firm.
It was on a Sunday evening.
I said: Let me ask you all a question. My friend from California
knows when two people ask a question and you start to answer it, it
ends up with four people there and then 10 people there, and all of a
sudden you have a mini-press conference and there are 20 people. That
is what happened at this cocktail party on someone's patio.
I said: Let me ask you this question: would anybody here object if
the President, when he addressed the Nation about the $87 billion, had
said--and I want to ask the wealthiest among you, the top 1 percent of
the taxpayers in America--give up 1 year of the 10 years of your tax
cut in order to help prosecute this war against terror and sustain the
peace in Iraq, would any one of you object to that?
Obviously, that is a little peer pressure I put on them, but not a
single person said they would object. Beyond that, it started a
discussion. I just sat there and listened. They said, of course, that
is the right thing to do. Of course, we should do this. Of course, of
course, of course.
Then I tried it again at one of the most upscale country clubs in my
State. I was playing in a charitable golf tournament, and there was the
same thing.
I think the President and many of my colleagues underestimate the
American character. I truly believe they underestimate Americans. I do
not know of any wealthy American who, given the realistic options we
have to pay for this, would say, hey, look, if I am going to give up 1
year of the $690 billion the 1 percent is going to get, I want that guy
making 25 percent of what I make, I want that guy making 10 percent of
what I make to give up one year, too.

Do any of my colleagues believe that is what they would say? I do not
believe it. And this is not politics. This is not my playing a game. I
do not believe it. This is something that not only is the right thing
to do, the people whom you are asking to do it believe it is the right
thing to do.
I stated on the floor before and I said at home, I would ask any
wealthy Delawarean in my State, which we will get

[[Page S12319]]

to the numbers, who makes $400,000 in gross income, to call me at my
office and tell me they are not willing to give up $2,100 a year for 6
years of their tax cut, because that is what it comes to. I am inviting
them to call me. I promise I will report to my colleagues all those who
call me.
The point is, these are patriotic Americans. They know we have our
hands full. They know the deal. So that is the third way we can do
this.
How does it practically work, and then I am going to yield to my
friend from Massachusetts.
Mr. BENNETT. Will the Senator yield?
Mr. BIDEN. I will be delighted to.
Mr. BENNETT. I am listening with great interest. I agree with much of
what the Senator said, but before the Senator from Massachusetts gives
a major speech I would like the opportunity to engage in a colloquy.
Mr. BIDEN. Sure, but first let me make one last point so we have the
facts out.
Mr. BENNETT. I would ask the Senator to make his point and then I
would appreciate it if we could do that.
Mr. BIDEN. I would be happy to.
Let me be straight about exactly what this amendment would do. People
whose tax bracket up until this year was 39.6 percent, having had it
drop down to 35 percent--so there is no false advertising here, the
Biden-Kerry-Feinstein-Chafee, et cetera, amendment would raise,
beginning in 2005, their tax bracket back up to 38.2 percent, still a
percentage point and a half less than it was a year ago but 2 point
something percent higher than it is today. That is what it would do.
By the way, I will tell my colleagues who these folks are. People who
pay at the top rate have an average income--well, it is unfair to
average. As Samuel Clemens, or rather Mark Twain, said, all
generalizations are false, including this one. So I want to be
completely straight about this. The average income in that top 1
percent is $1 million a year. At a minimum, people who would be
affected by this have to have an income, before standard deductions and
exemptions, of over $400,000 in gross income. Others will fall into
this category if their taxable income after deductions is over
$312,000. But that is after; that is net. That is taxable income. OK.
So we have the picture where people--the way I am told by the Joint
Tax Committee, by Brookings and others, we may find an exception to
this, but there is nobody making $400,000 a year gross who does not
have standard deductions and exemptions. By the way, this does not
impact on their capital gains, which is taxed at a different rate. This
does not impact on the dividend exemptions or change the rate at all.
That is still theirs. We do not touch that at all. This is just a
straight tax of those who now fall within the 35 percent bracket.
So I am told by all the experts--and this is not my expertise. To the
extent I have one, I think it is more on the Constitution and foreign
policy, and I am not suggesting I have one, but it is surely not here.
I have tried to get the best information from as many sources. So we
are talking about the incomes of people in the top bracket who are--by
the way, if one is in the top bracket now they are in the less than 1
percent bracket, they are about .7 of 1 percent of the income earners
in America. One percent is slightly bigger than those who fall within
the 35-percent tax bracket right now. But if you overlap, as Dr. Green
tells it, if you overlap the two circles, they are almost exactly the
same. There is some variation, but I can only go by the numbers
provided by the IRS, and the models provided by them, and by our Joint
Tax Committee.

So the bottom line is this: The people in the top 1 percent--slightly
more, by the way, than the people in the 35-percent tax bracket now--
those people, over the period of this entire tax cut, will receive
$688.9 billion in tax reduction from what they were paying before the
tax cut. What this does is it takes $87 billion of that amount, leaving
them with a present and future tax cut of $600 billion, as opposed to
$688.9 billion.
This is to put it in perspective. Fully 80 percent of their fellow
Americans, in the first four quintiles--you know how they divide this
up. They divide it up into the first, second, third, fourth, and the
fifth is the 1 percent. In other words, all other Americans, the 99
percent of the other Americans who pay taxes get a cumulative tax cut,
in the first--they will get cumulative tax cuts of $599 billion. All
right? So you have the top 1 percent who will still get $600 billion,
which will be $1 billion more than every other American combined will
get in a tax cut.
Let me be precise. I may have misspoken. That is not true. The first
four--than 80 percent of the American people will get.
Now, again, this is not an attack on the tax cut. I didn't like the
tax cut, and I won't talk about that. But what Senator Kerry and I are
trying to do takes away less than 5 percent of the $1.8 trillion in tax
cuts that this tax cut bill provides. Again, it is not an attack on
those at the highest income. It still leaves them $600 billion in tax
cuts.
There is a lot more for me to say, but I will yield now to my friend
from Utah for that colloquy.
Mr. BENNETT. I thank the Senator from Delaware not only for his
courtesy and friendship, which is reciprocated and, as he has said on
the Senate floor, is genuine and real, but I thank him for the clear
manner in which he has described this whole situation. I agree
absolutely with the overall conclusion that he has come to with respect
to loans versus grants. I am running this year, and I am going to have
to defend the grant situation, but I am perfectly willing to do so for
all the reasons which the Senator from Delaware has outlined.
But there are a few comments I would like to make in the spirit of
our friendship and the seriousness with which the Senator from Delaware
has approached this issue--at random. The Senator from Delaware is
often at random so he can understand.
The references to the Marshall plan and the difference between World
War I and World War II are accurate, but I would like to just add one
factoid.
Mr. BIDEN. If the Senator will yield, I want to make it clear I did
not reference the Marshall plan. I referenced the philosophy. I think
we have overworked the Marshall plan analogy.
Mr. BENNETT. I agree with the Senator we have overworked it and I
want to back away from it with this fact. The country that received the
most money in the Marshall plan was Great Britain. It was not
rebuilding destroyed countries, destroyed by virtue of our actions in
the war. It was rebuilding Europe that was exhausted by the struggle
that really began in the First World War and never ended. I think that
is the appropriate analogy here.
I do not view Iraq as a defeated nation. I view Iraq as a victorious
nation that has won a struggle of almost four decades in length with
our help.
Mr. BIDEN. If the Senator will yield, I agree with that premise. I am
not making the case they are a defeated nation.
Mr. BENNETT. The Senator used the phrase ``defeated nation.'' I think
it is, in fact, a victorious nation but an exhausted one by virtue of
the 40-year struggle. The grant we are talking about here is essential
to come back from that 40-year experience.
The second random point: I listened to the Senator's comments about
the deficit. All I know, both before I came here and in the relatively
brief period of time I have been here, is that no matter what figure we
use with respect to the deficit in the future, it is wrong. I don't
know whether it is too high, and I don't know whether it is too low,
but I do know one thing for sure, it is wrong.
Mr. BIDEN. Will the Senator yield on that point? The Senator will
agree, though, that whatever it is will be $87 billion higher if we
don't pay for it.
Mr. BENNETT. No. No. I will not because the deficit is a function of
the vitality of the economy. If the economy is stronger than the
computers at CBO are currently saying it is, the deficit could
disappear and we could have the whole $87 billion.
I am not saying that we will because I don't know.
Mr. BIDEN. If the Senator will yield on that point, if the Senator
thinks there is any possibility of the entire deficit disappearing
through economic growth in the next several years, then I think he and
I should have a talk now because the Senate physician is down the hall
here and we ought to go have

[[Page S12320]]

a little visit with him. I know he doesn't seriously mean that.

Mr. BENNETT. I think the possibility is extremely, extremely small.
Mr. BIDEN. I believe in miracles, too. I am a Catholic. I believe in
miracles.
Mr. BENNETT. I do, however, know that over 50 percent of the
shortfall in the projected surplus that we were talking about at the
time we started, in 2001, is due not to the tax cut and not to
increased spending but to the downturn in the economy. If the economy
should come back to be as strong as it was before--and there are signs
that it is recovering nicely now--that 50 percent could be recovered.
So, no, I agree that we will not remove the deficit, but I think it
is an inaccurate statement to say it will be exactly the $87 billion.
We do that around here and it frustrates me as a former businessman.
It frustrates me as a legislator. We are constantly taking the latest
numbers from CBO and assuming that they are cast in stone. Then 3
months later, when we get the next set of numbers that completely
contradict the earlier ones, we say: Oh, these are the true numbers,
and we go on and on. I am not arguing with the Senator's general
direction, but I wanted to be a little careful in the specificity with
which he outlines this.
Let me get to the heart of the issue that I have with the proposal
the Senator is making. I hope I can do this without being too arcane,
and I hope I can do it quickly because I recognize I am on the
Senator's time and I again thank him for his courtesy.
Mr. BIDEN. May I ask, there is no time agreement right now; is that
correct?
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. MURKOWSKI). That is correct.
Mr. BIDEN. So the Senator is entitled to have it on his time.
Mr. BENNETT. I thank the Senator. I think his experience at his
cocktail party is one that would be repeated by every one of us if we
were to gather people of that kind of income in any one of our States.
So why don't we all join with the Senator from Delaware? Why am I not
saying I agree with him?
If I may illustrate the reasons with a personal example, not all of
the tax returns that are filed and that are in the statistical sample
the Senator described represent income to individuals. I do not know
the current number. I would have looked it up if I had known I was
going to get in this exchange. But other numbers have said 75 percent,
80 percent, or some very high figure of percentage of those tax returns
that show $400,000 in gross income are, in fact, not income to the
individual. Let me give you my personal example to illustrate this.
Before I came to the Senate, I was CEO of a company that was an S
corporation. S corporations as opposed to C corporations are exactly
the same thing except for the way they are taxed. The ``S'' refers to
that section of the Tax Code that is appropriate and ``C'' refers to
that section of the Tax Code that is appropriate. In an S corporation,
the earnings of the company flow through to the shareholders and are
reported on the shareholders' personal tax returns. Therefore, they
show up as income to the individual.
I will again use myself as the example. I was the CEO of this
company. I was earning $140,000 a year as the CEO of the company. The
company started to do really very well. It was growing very rapidly.
Sales were more than doubling every year. We were bringing on new
people. We were building new buildings. We needed every dime of capital
we could put our hands on. Fortunately for us, we were doing this
during what the New York Times called ``The Decade of Greed;'' that is,
when the top marginal tax rate was 28 percent.
By putting the income of the company on my personal tax return and
those of the other shareholders, the company was paying an effective
rate of 28 percent which meant we got to keep 72 cents out of every
dollar we earned to finance the growth of that company. We created that
company with internally generated funds. We didn't do it by going to
the stock market. We didn't do it by going to the banks. Of course, we
had a line of credit at the bank. But it was not part of our capital.
That meant one of the last years before I left the company and decided
to run for the Senate, my compensation from the company was $140,000.
Let us go through these numbers.
My compensation from the company was $140,000. My share of the
company's profits which was reported on my 1040 was $1 million. As far
as the IRS was concerned, I was a very rich man who was earning $1.14
million a year. All I got was $140,000. The rest of it, while reported
on my tax return, was kept in the company to pay for the growth of the
company.
Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, will the Senator yield for a question?
Mr. BENNETT. I am happy to yield to the Senator.
Mr. KERRY. Isn't it accurate that because it was a subchapter S
corporation all of the deductions also flowed through to you? Isn't it
accurate? All the deductions flowed through you?
Mr. BENNETT. Of course. The net amount I reported after the
deductions was $1 million. So as far as the IRS was concerned, my
income was $1.14 million. Under the Tax Code, the deductions to which
the Senator from Delaware referred that go to people in these
categories were all wiped out by the $1 million. All of my credits, all
of my deductions--everything was wiped out.
If we were to take the numbers the Senator from Delaware was talking
about, and say, OK, you have someone with a $400,000 gross income, and
that means his after-tax income is $312,000 because of the standard
deduction, if he has a chunk of 401-K income on this from either an S
corporation or an LLC corporation, or a partnership, all of those
standard deductions go away very quickly as the number goes up.

The point of this is not to argue one way or the other about how the
tax structure is; it is to say the Senator is inadvertently targeting a
large number of small businesses where profits and growth money are
being reported on individual returns rather than through corporate
returns. The S corporations were made substantially worse after the
Reagan years because of the summit at Andrews Air Force Base, and then
what was done with the Clinton tax increases.
There are not as many people using the S corporations as there used
to be because the advantage is not as great. But there is a still a
very substantial amount of small business income that will be hit by
the Senator's amendment. We are not just talking about Donald Trump and
Jennifer Lopez. We are not talking about Michael Jordan. We are talking
about people who are building businesses for whom $400,000 a year for
the income of the business is a demonstration of a struggle. It is not
a demonstration of the kind of opulence you find at the Delaware
country club. It is survival. We didn't get to the point with the
business I have described where we felt comfortable in cash flow until
our earnings were well into the $10 million, $12 million, or $15
million area because of the demand for capital.
Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, will the Senator yield?
Mr. BENNETT. I would be happy to.
Mr. BIDEN. We are trying to get this agreement. As a practical
matter, this will come out of my time. I think the Senator has made his
point.
Let me make a macroeconomic point and let some of my other colleagues
respond as well. With regard to the small businesses, small business
owners can still happen to be among the top 1 percent income earners.
Only 2 percent of the small business owners fall into that bracket, a
number which includes a lot of people who have passive participation
with investment income in small business. These are not hands-on, mom-
and-pop businesses. If you look at the sole proprietorships, those of
hands-on owners, less than 2 percent are paying the 35 percent bracket.
Therefore, 98 percent of the small business owners will not be affected
by this proposal, as I understand from staff.
I will get back to this in our discussion. But I want to yield to my
friend from Massachusetts because we are about to enter into a time
agreement. I didn't realize we were running the time before the
agreement is made. At any rate, I will reserve the remainder of the
time while we are trying to work this out.
To respond to my friend, I understand his point. The bottom line is
no matter how you cut it, this is affecting an incredibly small number
of people for an incredibly important undertaking and the alternatives
are worse

[[Page S12321]]

by a long shot, in my view, that any negative impact in any sector in
any way would come from this amendment.
I yield the floor.
Mr. REID. Madam President, we are moments away from offering a
unanimous consent request. I don't know who is going to get the floor
next, but whoever gets the floor, I ask if Senators will allow an
interruption for the unanimous consent request. It should be coming in
a matter of a couple of minutes.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.
Mr. KERRY. Madam President, thank you very much. I will proceed until
such time as the unanimous consent request is put into effect.
I listened carefully to the comments of the Senator from Delaware,
and obviously the Senator from Utah. I think the comments of the
Senator from Utah do not really change the equation at all because the
real question here is, Why is America being asked to pay this $87
billion? What is the context within which the average citizen of
America, the average taxpayer is now being told, Whoops, we have a
whole different situation here. We have to pay $87 billion in addition
to the $79 billion Americans have already invested in the war to date.
Most Americans think this is sort of the bill for the war. It is not.
We are well over $160 billion or $170 billion already once you add the
$87 billion, and most people believe it is going to go beyond that.
The question is, What is the fair distribution of this burden in the
overall context of our economy to the average taxpayer of America? Is
it right for President Bush and for the Republicans to be asking
America to give an enormous tax cut to the wealthiest of Americans and
spend the $87 billion, which also adds to the deficit for this year?
No one will come to the Senate and say the $500 billion deficit we
are facing next year is going to be wiped out by growth in the economy
when we are not even adding jobs in the growth to the economy today.
I yield to the Senator.
Mr. BENNETT. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that a vote in
relation to the pending Biden amendment occur at 3:15 p.m. today with
no amendment in order to the amendment prior to the vote, provided the
debate before the vote be 30 minutes under the control of the
Republican side and the remaining time under the Democratic leader or
his designee.
Mr. REID. I ask that the Senator allow the consent to be modified, as
follows: Senator Biden be recognized for 30 minutes, within the time
allocated to us; Senator Kennedy for 15 minutes; Senator Kerry for 20
minutes; Senator Kohl for 5 minutes; Senator Clinton for 10 minutes;
Senator Conrad for 15 minutes; Senator Jack Reed for 5 minutes; Senator
Durbin for 5 minutes; Senator Feinstein for 10 minutes; Senator Johnson
for 5 minutes, Senator Carper for 5 minutes; and if there is any time
remaining, it would be under the control of the Senator from Delaware.
Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Reserving the right to object, I ask that this be
amended, since I have been waiting, so that I follow Senator Kerry for
my time.
Mr. REID. I think that is appropriate. And Senator Bunning will
follow Senator Feinstein.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The Senator from Massachusetts.
Mr. KERRY. The question we ought to be asking is, What is the right
thing to do that is in keeping with the values of America? We have the
worst economy we have had, the worst jobs economy since Herbert Hoover
was President of the United States; 3.1 million Americans have lost
their jobs, 2.7 million manufacturing jobs have been lost. All across
America, people are watching outsourcing taking place as jobs are going
to China, India, and other countries. They are not being replaced. We
just picked up the newspapers a couple of days ago and saw that 2
million Americans have lost their health insurance retirement, it has
been blown away for countless numbers of Americans. Health care has
been lost for 2 million Americans. Governors across the country are
raising taxes and cutting services. Infrastructure investments are
being deferred.
What the Republicans and the President are asking is that we take
another $87 billion and still keep a tax cut for the wealthiest people
in our country who are doing the best, who are already the most
comfortable, who are perfectly prepared to do their part to sacrifice,
to contribute, not to grow the deficit--indeed, to relieve some of the
financial pressure of this country, literally, to make things more fair
in America.
What this is about is called fundamental fairness. Fairness. It is
not about class warfare. This is not about redistribution. Is it fair
in America to suggest that you can add to the deficit--which it will
this year--to suggest all of the figures of this administration, which
have been wrong, can be wiped away on the backs of the average American
so that the wealthiest people in the country can keep their tax cut?
That is the question. It is a pretty simple fundamental question.
If others want to come to the Senate and defend the notion, it is
absolutely OK to be misled, to have major players in the administration
tell us, it is only going to cost $50 billion; it will come out of the
Iraqi oil; don't worry about it. And every one of those promises have
been wiped away and left in tatters across this country.
Americans are angry about this. What is the Senate going to do? Stand
here and defend the proposition that America in its current fiscal
condition can support a tax cut for the wealthiest Americans at the
expense of common sense and fairness? That is what this vote is about.
That is what this choice is about.
It also is about the fundamental realities of how we got here. Last
spring, our fighting men and women swept across the battlefields of
Iraq. There is not anyone in the Senate who is not proud of what they
accomplished in military terms. Thanks to their courage and their
skills, Saddam Hussein and his henchmen are scattered and that brutal
regime is no more.
But in the aftermath of that military victory, just as many Members
predicted, in the absence of building a coalition, in the absence of
doing the diplomacy, in the absence of showing patience and maturity,
in the absence of living up to our highest values and standards about
how we take a nation to war, we are now in danger of losing the peace.
The clearest symbol of that danger is the target on the backs of
young American men and women in Iraq. Today, soldiers in Baghdad fear
getting shot simply going out and getting a drink of water. A squad at
a checkpoint has to worry whether a station wagon coming at them is a
mobile bomb. And troops moving in convoy take RPGs and improvised
explosive devices, and we pick up the papers each day and hear the news
about three, two, one more young American life lost because we failed
to plan to win the peace adequately, we failed to put in place the
greatest protection possible for these troops, which is what they are
owed.

Now we know Iraq's infrastructure needs to be rebuilt and we face the
challenge of forging a new government and giving it legitimacy under
circumstances that were entirely predictable and entirely ignored by
this administration. We were told by this administration, in their
confidence--and, may I add, in their arrogance--that the Iraqis would
see us as liberators.
They see us as occupiers--again, something many predicted absent the
effort to try to globalize our effort. They see us as a foreign power
ruling over their country, preventing self-determination, not providing
it. We were told to expect elections and quick transition to self-
governance. But now we know those elections may be many months away at
best.
None of this was planned or predicted by the President or his war
counsel. Eager to rush to war, the administration played down or,
worse, ignored the likelihood of resistance. It lowballed the number of
forces that would be needed to seize the alleged WMD sites, for which
the war was fought, to protect the infrastructure, and underestimated
the magnitude of the reconstruction task and the ease with which oil
would flow for rebuilding. It refused to tell the American people
upfront the long-term costs of winning the peace.
I remember the distinguished former President pro tempore and leader
of the Democrats, the Senator from West

[[Page S12322]]

Virginia, asking that question penetratingly, repeatedly. Yet those
figures given have proven to be false or completely underballed. It
refused to tell the American people those long-term costs, and it
refused to do the work, to ask the international community to join us
in this effort.
It was bad enough to go it alone in the war, but it is inexcusable
and incomprehensible that we choose to go it alone in the peace. One of
the reasons we are facing $87 billion is that the administration has
stiff-armed the United Nations and has not been willing to bring other
nations to this cause through the deftness of their diplomacy, the
skill of their diplomacy.
Last year, President Bush had three decisive opportunities to reduce
this $87 billion bill. That first opportunity came when we authorized
force. That authorization sent a strong signal about the intentions of
the Congress to be united in holding Saddam Hussein accountable. I
thought, and still believe, that was the right thing to do. It was
appropriate for the United States to help stand up at the United
Nations and hold those resolutions accountable. It set the stage for
the U.N. resolution that finally led Saddam Hussein to let the weapons
inspectors back into Iraq. That was correct.
When I voted to give that authority, I said the arms inspections are
``absolutely critical in building international support for our
case. That's how you make clear to the world we are contemplating war
not for war's sake, but because it may be the ultimate weapons
inspections enforcement mechanism.''

The Bush administration, impatient to go into battle, stopped the
clock on the inspections, against the wishes of key members of the
Security Council, and despite the call of many in Congress who had
voted to authorize the use of force as the last resort the President
said it would be.
Despite his September promise to the United Nations to ``work with
the UN Security Council to meet our common challenge,'' President Bush
rushed ahead on the basis of what we now know to be dubious,
inaccurate, and perhaps even manipulated intelligence.
So the first chance for a true international response that would have
reduced this bill, that would have brought other countries to
contribute was lost.
Then there was a second opportunity. After the Iraqi people pulled
down the statue of Saddam Hussein in the square in Baghdad, there was a
moment when British and American forces had proven our military might
and the world was prepared to come in and try to assume the
responsibility for helping to rebuild Iraq.
Once again, Kofi Annan and the United Nations offered their help.
Once again, this administration gave them the stiff arm. They said: No,
thank you; we do not need your help. And we proceeded forward without
building the kind of coalition that would reduce the risk to our troops
and without reducing the cost to the American people.
Then the third occasion was just the other day, when the President
went to the U.N. General Assembly. Other nations again stood ready to
help to provide troops and, hopefully, funds. All President Bush had to
do was show a little humility and ask appropriately. Instead of asking,
he lectured. Instead of focusing on reconstruction, his speech was a
coldly received exercise in the rhetoric of redemption.
Kofi Annan offered to help. Again, we did not take them up on that
offer in a way that was realistic. The President exhibited an attitude
that was both self-satisfied and tone deaf simultaneously, once again
raising the risk for American soldiers by leaving them alone, and once
again raising the cost to the American people by leaving America alone.
I believe the President could have owned up to some of the
difficulties. The President could have signaled or stated a willingness
to abandon unilateral control over reconstruction and governance.
Instead, he made America less safe--less safe--in a speech and in
conduct that pushed other nations away rather than brought them to our
cause and what should be rightfully the world's cause.
So what of this cost of the Iraqi operation?
In the fall of 2002, OMB Chief Mitch Daniels told us the costs of
Iraq would be between $50 and $60 billion. It is now already more than
$100 billion more than that.
In January of this year, Secretary Rumsfeld said the same, and he
added that ``How much of that would be the U.S. burden, and how much
would be other countries', is an open question.''
Well, today it is not an open question; it is a closed question. We
know the answer: The majority is being paid by the American taxpayers.
In March of this year, Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz testified in the
Senate that Iraq is a ``country that can really finance its own
reconstruction, and relatively soon.''
Did the Secretary mislead us or was the Secretary ignorant?

Again, in March, Secretary Powell testified in the Senate that ``Iraq
will not require the sorts of foreign assistance Afghanistan will
continue to require.''
When Larry Lindsey predicted the war may cost $100 billion to $200
billion, he was deemed so far off base by the White House that he was
fired.
Now, a year later, Congress is set to appropriate over $160 billion,
and the costs are estimated to rise to $350 billion to $400 billion
over 5 years. Even Larry Lindsey's estimates are now low.
With so much so wrong, Americans are looking to the White House for
direction and leadership. They want, and they deserve, straight answers
to straight questions.
How long will we be there? How much will it really cost? How many
American troops will it take? And how long will it be before we do what
common sense dictates and get the world invested in this effort by not
treating Iraq as though it is an American prize, a loot of war but,
rather, treating it as a nation that belongs in the community of
nations, dealt with properly by the United Nations, as we did in Bosnia
and Kosovo and Namibia and East Timor and in other parts of the world?
So far, the White House, with all of its evasion and explanation, has
been a house of mirrors where nothing is what it seems and almost
everything is other than what the President promised. But Americans are
also looking to us in the Congress for leadership.
The President has talked a lot about sacrifice in recent weeks. In an
address from the White House, he said of Iraq, ``This will take time
and require sacrifice.'' In his weekly radio talk, he warned that
``This campaign requires sacrifice.'' Even in his State of the Union
Address, the President issued a call for sacrifice saying: ``We will
not deny, we will not ignore, we will not pass along our problems to
other Congresses, other presidents, and other generations.'' But that
is exactly what we are doing if we leave this $87 billion in its
current form.
Also, there can be no doubt that the President has demanded that most
of this sacrifice will come from the men and women in uniform. More
than 300 troops have now already given their lives in Iraq. The Army is
stretched too thin for its duties in Iraq. And troops who were promised
that they would be home long ago remain in Iraq.
The President has called on the National Guard and Reserve at
historic rates and put more than 200,000 guardsmen and reservists on
active duty. The Pentagon has changed the rules so that a Guard unit's
activation date does not start until the troops arrive in Iraq. That is
a bookkeeping sleight of hand that keeps thousands of forces deployed
even longer than they expected or were promised. And, incredibly, the
President's call for sacrifice even included billing wounded troops for
the cost of hospital meals. Fortunately, the Congress rectified that
problem in this supplemental. But it is not yet law.
Despite all we are asking of the men and women in uniform, the bill
we now debate appropriates $87 billion simply by increasing the Federal
deficit. It asks no sacrifice of anybody in the United States today who
can afford it. This is an off-budget, deficit-spending free ride.
The amendment Senator Biden and I and others are offering changes
that. It will pay the cost of this bill. It will pay the cost of the
entire $87 billion by simply repealing--not all, which I think we ought
to do--a portion of the tax cut for the wealthiest Americans.

The Biden-Kerry amendment will ask those who can afford to pay this
burden to do so, and make their contribution, make their sacrifice to
the effort to

[[Page S12323]]

win the peace. It protects the middle class. It meets our obligations
in Iraq. And it will help ensure that we have the resources necessary
to accomplish our goals here at home, goals such as making health care
more affordable, paying for homeland security, and keeping the
President's promise to leave no child behind.
We should not abandon our mission in Iraq, and we understand the
downsides of doing so. But we ought to demand that whatever we spend in
Iraq be paid for with shared sacrifice, not deficit dollars.
We are already shortchanging critical domestic programs to pay for
unwise tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. In addition, the Bush
fiscal record and its trillions in debt demand that we follow the
commonsense approach of our amendment.
Since President Bush took office, the cumulative 10-year budget
surplus has declined by almost $10 trillion. We have gone from the
largest budget surplus in American history to the largest deficit in
American history this year. We have added nearly $1 trillion to the
debt inside of a single Presidential term. On top of that, we have
passed a huge tax cut during wartime for the first time in American
history. And that is the height of irresponsible, reckless budgeting.
The Bush administration blames the budget crisis on the Nation's
response to September 11 and on funding for domestic programs, but that
is a stunning misstatement of fact.
The simple facts are that the fiscal policies supported by this
administration--tax cuts already passed, tax cuts that have been
proposed, significant increases in defense spending and money for Iraq,
and additional interest on the debt--have caused more than half of this
turnaround. As the debt piles up, the President claims that he bears no
responsibility when he, in fact, and his policies are the primary
cause.
Senator Biden and I are making a commonsense proposal. Rather than
borrowing an additional $87 billion, we want to scale back a small
portion of the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, for those making
over $300,000 a year. The average income of those in that top tax
bracket is $1 million a year. These Americans are not exactly hurting.
Their real average after-tax income rose a remarkable 200 percent in
the 1980s and 1990s, and their overall share of pretax income has
nearly doubled over 20 years. That cannot be said of any other income
group in the United States.
In the year 2000, the 2.8 million people who made up the top 1
percent of the population received more total after-tax income than did
110 million Americans who make up the bottom 40 percent. Think about
that: The top 1 percent of Americans earned more income than the bottom
40 percent, and that is after taxes.
Mr. REID. Madam President, under the time allocated, we have some
extra time. So on behalf of Senator Biden, I yield 2 minutes to the
Senator from Massachusetts.
Mr. KERRY. It is simply not unfair to ask those earning the most,
those who are the most fortunate, those who are the most talented, the
hard-working Americans who are earning more than $300,000, not as a
matter of any kind of targeting except for the fact they are the best
off and have the greatest ability, to make this sacrifice without a
negative impact on their lifestyle, on their choices, on their quality
of life. This is a time for sacrifice. I believe it is appropriate for
us to ask that in order to promote a free Iraq, in order to reduce the
burden being placed on future generations of Americans, in order to
reduce the burden placed on the middle class today, in order to have
the least negative impact on our economy, the least negative impact on
long-term interest rates, the least crowding out of borrowing by adding
to the debt and crowding out private borrowing in the marketplace by
public borrowing, the least negative impact on perceptions, the best
way for America to deal with this problem of misinformation, this
problem of promises broken is to turn to those the President seeks most
to give the biggest breaks to most frequently and ask them to share the
burden.
I hope my colleagues will do that, recognizing the sacrifice being
made on a daily basis by 130,000 of our troops who live and die by what
we do in the Senate and the House, in the Congress in Washington.
I thank the Chair.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Bunning). The Senator from Delaware.
Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, I yield myself 2 minutes.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. BIDEN. I meant to state earlier--and I know my colleague from
California is about to speak--that the Senator from California was way
ahead of me and way ahead of my friend from Massachusetts in one very
important respect. She and Senator Chafee, long before I made this
proposal, suggested that, quite frankly, the entire top 1 percent of
the tax break be rolled back, not just $87 billion, to pay for this and
for other things to reduce the deficit. It was my intention to speak to
that. Then I entered into what was an exchange with my friend from
Utah, and I did not. I want to make clear what a central role she and
Senator Chafee have played in making the fundamental point that all
Americans should participate in making sure we win the peace and not
saddle the next generation. That is unconscionable.
I yield the floor and thank my colleague.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California.
Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Delaware. I
appreciate those words. Both Senator Chafee and I felt very strongly
that this rate rollback that affects the top 1 percent is really the
right thing to do at this time.
I particularly compliment the Senator from Delaware on the way he
worked out this bill, because essentially this is a rollback of the
accelerated rate cut that the top 1 percent received in May 2003. It
rolls back the acceleration just enough to pay the $87 billion cost of
this supplemental. So it becomes a very reasonable way to pay for a
part of this war which, to date, including this supplemental, will cost
the American people more than $150 billion.
This is a big day in the Senate. As many of us have pointed out this
week at the Appropriations Committee hearing on the supplemental, there
are questions in the $21 billion reconstruction portion of the
supplemental request. Senator Byrd has twice tried to divide the
package--once in the Appropriations Committee, once here on the floor.
We have not been successful in being able to do that.
At the same time, we also recognize the seriousness of the need that
the Iraqi people and their transportation and water infrastructure face
after decades of neglect. We certainly recognize the needs that our men
and women have in Iraq.
The fact is, we don't have the money to pay for improvements in our
own infrastructure. Owing to a lack of money, just a few hours ago I
decided against offering an amendment to this supplemental that would
have invested substantial moneys in our domestic infrastructure, a plan
that would have enhanced the safety, security, and efficiency of our
highway, transit, aviation, rail, port, environmental, and public
buildings infrastructure.
The reality is that there is no money to fund necessary improvements
here at home. The reality is, those of us on this side of the aisle
have become deficit hawks, whereas a few years ago it was the other
side of the aisle. So today we have greatly enhanced spending for
preparedness, for homeland security, and for the military.
How is it we can be expected to approve this supplemental without
asking the most obvious question: How are we going to pay for it?
I have joined with Senators Biden, Kerry, Corzine, and others in
supporting this legislation because it will provide the necessary
financial footing to appropriately execute our obligations in Iraq and
Afghanistan as contained in this supplemental. In 1998, following
nearly 30 years of deficits and a seventeenfold increase in the Federal
debt, from $365.8 billion to $6.4 trillion, bipartisan cooperation
brought the budget back into balance again. In 1998, we had the first
surplus in a long time. Some of the funds which would have gone to pay
interest on the debt were instead spent actually paying down the debt,
and we were all delighted.

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Now deficits and interest costs are growing once again. Net interest
payments on Federal debt will increase sharply, from approximately $170
billion in 2003 to more than $300 billion by 2012. And we face a host
of new challenges: the war on terror, the war in Iraq, the threat of
North Korea. This has necessarily led to a shift in Government spending
toward improving our defense and homeland security capabilities. Yet
many of the challenges predating September 11 are still with us:
improving education, updating infrastructure, preparing for the
retirement of the baby boom generation, which will all severely strain
the Social Security and Medicare trust funds.
The CBO predicts that the Federal deficit for fiscal year 2004 will
top $500 billion.
We might dispute the actual amount, but let there be no doubt, it is
going to happen. We are going to have the largest deficit in our
history this year. A portion of every dollar we spend, from this day
forward until the end of September 2004, will be borrowed money--money
our children and grandchildren will have to repay.
It is no secret that if citizens wish to receive services or
undertake activities as a Nation, they have the right to levy a tax
upon themselves to achieve these ends. We have somehow lost this sense
of obligation and we have concluded that providing for our national
defense, or for the education of our children, requires no more than
charging the costs to a Government credit card. This must stop.
In fact, as this supplemental request is currently structured, our
children and our grandchildren will pay $3.60 for every dollar we
borrow. This supplemental is not a request for $87 billion. It actually
totals $313 billion if you include the interest--$313 billion. It is
penny wise and pound foolish to do this the way we are doing it, by not
paying for it.
The President of the United States, in January of this year at his
State of the Union, said the following words, and we from both sides of
the aisle rose in acclaim to these words:

This country has many challenges. We will not deny, we will
not ignore, we will not pass along our problems to other
Congresses, to other Presidents, and to other generations. We
will confront them with focus and clarity and courage.

Well, this is one challenge we are passing on to other Congresses and
to other generations. We need not do it. This is a well thought out
proposal to temporarily rollback a small portion of the accelerated tax
cut for the top 1 percent--the wealthiest of all Americans.
As has been well stated, everyone who falls within this 1 percent
makes more than $310,000 a year in taxable income, which typically
means that they are making more than $420,000 a year in gross income.
We have more income taxpayers in California than any other State.
Thirteen million out of 34 million people are income taxpayers. In
California, this amendment will affect less than 250,000 families
paying these taxes. These families are all in the top 1 percent they
are the wealthiest Californians. Not one of them, at any time, has ever
come up to me and said: Senator, we want a tax cut. But I have had
several come up to me and say: I didn't realize how much money I would
receive from the 2001 tax cut. And they have added that it was not
really necessary to do it.
We now have an opportunity, by scaling back a small portion of the
accelerated cut associated with the May 2003 tax package, to pay for
this $87 billion supplemental. It makes good sense. Think of what it
saves for the future in terms of interest costs.
So what we are proposing generates $87 billion. It is a first step
toward putting our fiscal house in order. It pays for the President's
supplemental spending request. It doesn't revoke the 2001 reduction in
the top income tax rate, nor would it affect any other element of the
2001 tax package. It would merely temporarily raise the marginal income
tax rate of the richest in our society. These people could take pride
in knowing that this supplemental would not create debt that would be
passed on to their grandchildren, to your grandchildren, or to my
grandchildren.
I thank the Chair and yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Graham of South Carolina). The Senator
from Kentucky is recognized.
Mr. BUNNING. Mr. President, I rise to raise a few points on the war
on terror and offer my support for the President's supplemental
request.
First, I am compelled to address the latest round of attacks against
the President's request to fund our Armed Forces and rebuilding efforts
in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
We are at war. We may not have tens of thousands of soldiers storming
the beaches of Normandy. There are no forces with tanks positioned
against a potential Soviet advance into Europe.
But let there be no misunderstanding. The war against terror is every
bit as important as our fight against fascism in World War II. Or our
struggle against the spread of communism during the cold war.
I have full confidence that Kentuckians and the American people
realize this. But sometimes I wonder if some of my colleagues do,
because appeasement in this war is not an option.
Over the past decade, we have seen the bombing of the World Trade
Center in 1993, 19 American soldiers dead in the bombing of the Kohbar
Towers, and two U.S. Embassies in Africa blown up in 1996, and the
bombing of the USS Cole off the coast of Yemen in 2000.
And then, instead of facing the threat of Islamic radicalism, we
virtually looked the other way, and sent American forces as
peacekeepers elsewhere into places like Haiti, Bosnia, and Kosovo.
We still have thousands of American peacekeepers in Bosnia and
Kosovo. And these roles should be played by European forces who refuse
to get serious about cleaning up their own backyard.
During the 1990s, the Western world was riding high as the cold war
ended. Millions of people around the world found their first taste of
freedom. Anti-American rhetoric was a mere fraction of what it is
today. The global economy was humming along quite nicely.
However, some in the world digressed as we progressed. The Taliban
came to power in Afghanistan with its brutal regime over the Afghan
people. Afghan girls were kept out of school.
The regime executed political and religious dissidents. And al-Qaida
established training camps freely under the Taliban government.
Saddam Hussein never accounted for his weapons of mass destruction
programs. He kicked out the UN weapons inspectors. He defied UN
resolutions. He made payments to families of suicide bombers. Mass
graves were filled with bodies. He was a destabilizing threat.
And we let our guard down.
We all know what happened next--
9/11. And that day changed everything. President Bush and Members of
Congress from both parties vowed never again to let our guard down. We
vowed to protect the American people at all costs. And the war on
terror began.
Difficult times require difficult decisions, but supporting this bill
shouldn't be a difficult decision.
Let's show our resolve with our commitment to finish this war on
terror. Passing this supplemental will help get us closer.
We cannot pull back out of Iraq now, and should a vote come up in the
Senate to pull our support out of Iraq, it would fail overwhelmingly.
Contrary to what opponents say, the war in Iraq is neither a
``fraud,'' a ``quagmire,'' nor a ``miserable failure.''
This would suggest that our troops sent to liberate Iraq and fight
terrorism have died in vain. Nothing could be further from the truth.
From watching the news, one would think the Iraqis want us out of
their country. But an overwhelming majority of Iraqis support our
involvement there. Our freedom is contagious and we helped liberate
them.
Much progress has been made in relatively little time. American
troops stayed in Germany for 4 years and Japan for 7. We are still in
Bosnia and Kosovo. We can't expect democracy overnight.
Saddam invested in palaces and terror and not his economic
infrastructure. Many Iraqis had to wait until Saddam was gone to find
their loved ones in one of his mass graves.
It is now time to ensure that the days of mass graves in Iraq ends.
Our military forces deserve quick Congressional action on this bill.
I have been following the 101st Airborne in Iraq. They are based at
Fort

[[Page S12325]]

Campbell, KY. Just this week, the commanding general of the 101st,
General Petraeus, told me that over in Iraq ``money is ammunition. It's
the key to all we are doing.''
The 101st is doing some great work in northern Iraq. Besides killing
Saddam's two sons and accepting the surrender of Saddam's Defense
Minister, the 101st has worked on over 3,200 projects in the rebuilding
of Iraq. These range from repairing schools to repairing oil
refineries. They are doing truly remarkable work along with all our
forces.
Some in Congress believe we should make the rebuilding funds a loan
and not a grant. I oppose this approach.
While Iraq certainly has the resources to become a wealthy country,
its revenue from oil should be used to invest in its own future, not to
pay off old debts incurred under Saddam or be burdened with the debts
of a loan as it tries to transition to a free economy.
And besides, there is no established Iraq government to transfer a
loan to.
I find great irony in the arguments of some who oppose the war. Many
argued this war was all about the President's desire for oil.
Now many of these same people say we should use Iraqi oil to repay
our Government. And President Bush is leading the charge on allowing
Iraqis to keep their oil revenues for themselves.
Planning for an Iraqi oil fund is now in the works. It will give
Iraqis a stake in the future of their country for the first time. Funds
would go to public goods, such as national defense, education, and
infrastructure.
This is the type of approach Iraq needs. We need to give the Iraqi
people a hand up and not keep their heads down with debt.
If we don't act swiftly on this bill and terrorism prevails in this
war, then we risk having to fight this war on America's turf. And that
is why it is so vital to defeat the enemy on its turf as opposed to
allowing them to regroup and hit us at home as they did on 9/11.
I don't like getting casualty notifications on soldiers, especially
soldiers in my State, and I don't like it for anybody's state. No
Senator likes seeing them. It is difficult.
We all feel for the families and friends of the brave soldiers who
have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. I know what it is like for those
with loved ones still there. My wife and I felt the same way when our
son Bill served in Operation Desert Storm and later in Afghanistan.
But we must remember that our cause is just and that we are on the
right side of history.
We must remember that the war on terror may continue for some time. I
am going to repeat that because I want the American people to
understand that the war on terror may continue for some time. I
acknowledge that this is a difficult point for many Americans to grasp.
Indeed, it is difficult for many of us.
This is why it is time for us to move swiftly on this bill to protect
our troops and help rebuild both countries. This bill is an investment
in not just Iraq and Afghanistan, but it is an investment in our
security, freedom, and future.
I thank the Chair and I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I wish to take a few moments to speak in
favor of the Biden amendment that is before the Senate, which offsets
the extraordinary expenses--$87 billion--we are being asked to consider
in this supplemental appropriations act.
Before I get into that discussion, however, it is probably useful for
all of us to, once again, realize what $87 billion really is. It is
very difficult to get our hands around such a sizable number. It is
only when we look at it in comparison to other important federal
programs, to other key economic indicators, that we can really develop
a better understanding of how much money this really is.
Mr. President, $87 billion is more than the combined budget deficits
of all the 50 States in 2004. Even in the greatest fiscal crisis since
the Great Depression, the deficits of all 50 states were less than this
sum.
Eighty-seven billion is 87 times what the Federal Government usually
spends annually on afterschool programs. That is right, what we usually
spend, because this year the Administration proposes cutting that by
nearly $400 billion.
We have fought to try and get it back to just $1 billion for the
afterschool programs that are so essential to assisting children
develop the academic tools, personal confidence, and social skills
necessary for personal success and accomplishment in this country. Yet
still this Administration wants to slash this funding.
Again, this $87 billion is 87 times what we spend nationwide on
afterschool programs.
It is 2 years' worth of unemployment benefits for the millions of
people who have lost their jobs on this Administration's watch. Every
couple of months, we have to fight tooth and nail to extend these
temporary benefits for Americans who cannot find work. And its always a
fight.
These are not unmotivated citizens looking for a check they are
hardworking Americans who can't find a job in this slack economy. If we
help get them through this extraordinarily difficult time, they'll be
back contributing to the unemployment insurance system in a very short
time period.
This $87 billion is enough to pay each of the 3.3 million people who
have lost their jobs in the past 3 years more than $26,000.
It is seven times what the President proposed to spend on education
for low-income schools. Make no mistake about it: This $87 billion is
seven times the amount that this institution, the House of
Representatives, and the President are allocating for the low-income
schools in this country. It is seven times the amount we are spending
for the education of low-income children in this country.
It is nine times what this Federal Government spends each year on
special education for those several million children, close to about 4
million, who used to be kept in closets or kept away from the public
school system. We don't do that anymore, we don't relegate Americans to
lives of depravation, neglect, and isolation. For more than 25 years,
we have made steady progress, with section 504 of the Education Act and
then eventually the special education programs, the IDEA, some 25 years
ago. We have made remarkable progress.
What we are now looking now is that so many of these children
graduate from high school, go on to college, and enter the workforce.
They have a sense of value of their own self worth, a sense of dignity,
and they now contribute to the productivity of this nation. And what a
difference it makes to their parents, and their communities, and their
country. Yet in one stroke of the pen, we are about to send nine as
much money to Iraq as we invest in special education each year.
This $87 billion is also eight times what the Government spends each
year on the Pell grants to provide middle- and low-income students the
opportunity to go to college. The average income of families needing
this assistance is $15,200. And there are more than 4,800,000 young
people nationwide relying on this badly needed grant help.
We began the Pell Grant program at a time when we as a nation to our
young people that if they have ability and they can gain entrance into
the colleges where they are applying, we will help devise a package of
grants, loans, and work study programs in conjunction with their own
summer employment and contributions from their family, so that they can
achieve their highest aspirations.
That was an incredibly important choice for the economic and social
well-being of this country. It is important in terms of ensuring that
we are going to have well-qualified people in the military. It is
important in terms of our institutions and democracy.
Yet this $87 billion is eight times what we are allocating for
middle-income and low-income families to send their children to school.
Do my colleagues understand that? It is eight times that amount, and we
had to battle this year, a fight which we lost, to bring the Pell
grants up to respond to the increase in tuitions that are taking place
across this country. We wanted $2.2 billion, but we lost that $2.2
billion in the Senate. This Senate didn't have the money to help more
families send their kids to college this year, and now we know why.

This $87 billion is eight times the total Pell grants. That is what
we are

[[Page S12326]]

talking about. It is larger than the total economy of 166 nations. So
this is a major allocation of resources that is going to bind our hands
for years to come.
What does the Biden amendment do? The Biden amendment says we are
going to pay for this. We are not just going to allocate these
resources and add it to the debt of this country, which means our
children and our grandchildren are going to have to pay this some time
in the future.
We passed a very generous tax reduction program for the top 1 percent
of the taxpayers in this country. Now listen to this: Between 2003 and
2010, the top 1 percent of the taxpayers, which have an average income
in excess of $1 million, are going to get $690 billion in tax relief.
Do we understand that?
With the tax reductions that this Congress has passed over the period
of the last 2 years, the top 1 percent is going to get $690 billion.
Those are individuals who are making $1 million or more. That is going
to be their savings over the next 7 years, $690 billion. All the Biden
amendment says is rather than $690, let's make it $600 billion, in
order to make a down payment on paying for the war.
Shared sacrifice, now that is a pretty good American idea. Abraham
Lincoln believed in it when he call for an increase in the tax for the
wealthiest individuals at the time of the Civil War. We did exactly the
same thing at the time of the Spanish-American War. Shared sacrifices
across the board, by those who had the highest income. We did it in
World War I. We did it in World War II. Why are we not doing it with
this?
That is all this amendment is really about, shared sacrifice. To the
wealthiest 1 percent of individuals, we are saying when we have
American servicemen who are risking their lives every day families
being disrupted in terms of the National Guard and the Reserves--you
can give up some portion of your $690 billion tax cut. I met with many
from Massachusetts' servicemen who have come back from Iraq and
Afghanistan to find their jobs in jeopardy gone because of the state of
the economy. Families are separated for a much longer time than they
ever expected.
In our State, there are 11 families who have lost a loved one and
scores of families with grievously wounded relatives and friends. Why
can we not say that we are going to have some shared sacrifice? Instead
of the $690 billion, we will make it just under $600 billion. That is
what this amendment is about.
Finally, it seems to me a powerful enough argument, but listen, when
we enacted this tax cut, the administration officials, like Secretary
Rumsfeld, were saying, ``I do not believe the United States has the
responsibility for reconstruction.'' That was at the time we were
passing the tax cut.
We enacted this tax cut when the USAID Administrator Natsios was
telling the American people the total U.S. portion of construction
costs would be $1.7 billion and there are no plans for further on
funding after this.
This is $87 billion on top of the $78 billion that we have already
put up to fund this effort in Iraq. What happened to $1.7 billion? We
enacted this tax cut when Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz
was informing the Congress, that we are ``dealing with a country that
can really finance its own reconstruction and relatively soon.'' Do not
worry about it the cost was what we heard.
As a result of the administration's failure to plan for the true
costs of the Iraq operation and its failure to obtain substantial
international support, we are now faced with a staggering
reconstruction of $20 billion for Iraq which may be the only first
installment. This is only the first installment.
Before the Armed Services Committee, Ambassador Bremer said he
expects to be back again. When is it going to end? Ambassador Bremer is
now suggesting the total reconstruction costs may ultimately reach $60
billion. Those are the World Bank estimates. Because of the
administration's go-it-alone on Iraq, the costs of that mistake have
climbed to over $120 billion.
Clearly, the circumstances have changed. The administration has
grossly underestimated the costs now coming due.
President Bush, Secretary Rumsfeld, and Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz
wanted to go to war in the worst way, and they did.
Now the bill is coming due. The Biden amendment is the right way for
Congress and the country to pay the bill, and I urge my colleagues to
approve this amendment.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Bunning). The Senator from Kansas.
Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, I rise to address the Biden amendment
and make comments regarding it. I rise in opposition to that amendment
and I wanted to indicate why.
First, I want to indicate how we got to the point we are today. There
were a number of people who came forward to say this is a huge bill--
and it is. This is too much. I think we should examine that issue. I
hope nobody says we should not be paying, because we have started down
this road sometime back and it was the Congress that started down this
road, not the administration. It was the Congress that started down
this road. I think we now need to see this on through or we could leave
the situation that we in the Congress started in a worse position than
it was when we got into this in the first place.
This is what I want to point out. Congress passed the Iraq Liberation
Act in 1998. This was the vote in the House of Representatives: 360 to
38. The Senate, by unanimous consent, passed this bill, the Iraq
Liberation Act.
What did it call for? It called for regime change in Iraq. This was
signed into law by President Clinton. We allocated, authorized, and
appropriated $100 million to spend on this effort of regime change in
Iraq. That was to get Saddam Hussein out of Iraq.
He was supporting terrorists, he had used weapons of mass
destruction, he wreaked terrorism upon his own people, and he was
costing us billions of dollars a year in containment because we had
soldiers and airmen stationed in Saudi Arabia, and we were doing
regular bombings into Iraq. We were conducting no-fly zones in the
north and in the south. We built airbases in Saudi Arabia to be able to
move this on forward.
This was an untenable situation. It was bad for the Iraqi people, bad
for us, and bad for the region. All the countries in the region had
some difficulty or problem, either being attacked, as Kuwait was,
launched into, as Saudi Arabia was, threatened, as Jordan had been, at
war as Iran. These are the countries, other than Turkey and Syria, that
surround Iraq. Most of the countries in the region were saying
something needed to be done, but they weren't willing to step forward
unless the United States was serious. This was part of our statement
that we were serious.
President Bush took this forward after 9/11 when the whole world
changed for the United States. We decided after 9/11 that we would no
longer wait for the terrorists to gather up steam and build up forces
against us and then launch. We were going to go to the terrorists and
disrupt them first, rather than wait until they came to our soil so
tragically. Thus ensued the war on terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq.
In Iraq, we had a country that had in the past used chemical weapons
against its own people and against the Iranians. That is the fact and
that is what we knew and this is where it started, and it started with
the Congress.
Now to the issue today of the supplemental and how do we pay for it.
I think it would be a terrible mistake for us at this time to raise
taxes on the American people, just at the time when we are starting to
get the economy recovered and moving again.
Finally, this last quarter we had our best quarter in 2 years, with
3-percent GDP growth. The Gross Domestic Product grew by 3 percent this
last quarter. We are finally getting some growth and that growth has to
occur and has to build up for us to create jobs. There is a lag between
that growth and creating jobs. If we go right now and say to the
American people that we are going to raise taxes on you at this point
in time, you are going to threaten the very early stages of growth and
the creation of jobs which is starting to take place. That is the wrong
message to send.

The thing we need to do is keep the growth occurring in this country.
You do that by low interest rates and by

[[Page S12327]]

lowering taxes. Those are the two tools that are being displayed and
used now, and they are working to start the economic recovery. If you
grow taxes at this point in time, you send the wrong message.
We do have a growing Federal deficit. What should we be doing to
address that? I think we should address that issue of the Federal
deficit. It is important. It is an issue. It is something that needs to
be addressed.
I want to put forward an idea that we have 28 cosponsors on now. I
want to put it forward in the context of how we balanced the budget in
the past. We were able to balance the budget for several years in a
row. It is the Congress that appropriates the money and allocates the
spending. It is the Congress that gets the budget either in surplus or
deficit, and it was the Congress that balanced the budget previously.
How did we do it? There were two things. There was a strong growth in
the overall economy producing receipts coming into the Federal
Government and there was a slowing of the growth in Federal spending.
We restrained the growth of Federal spending so the growth in the
economy and the receipts it produced were more than the growth in the
spending of the Federal Government, and we were able to get our way to
a position where we had a balanced budget for several years in a row,
indeed pushing forward strong surpluses.
That is the way we will balance the budget again. Getting the economy
growing and restraining the growth in Federal spending.
How do we restrain the growth in Federal spending? The Commission on
Accounting and Review of Federal Agencies--CARFA, for short. The model
for it is the BRAC procedure. With the BRAC procedure, we looked at the
totality of the military bases we had. We said we had too many military
bases; we should cut back those military bases, consolidate them, and
use whatever we can save if we can save among the bases we keep. It is
called the BRAC process.
How does that work? We had a commission. The commission met, they
discussed it, and said we should eliminate these 50 bases. Then a bill
was introduced in the Congress with no amendments, and you gave each
House one vote up or down, whether they agree or disagree. By that
means we were able to eliminate and consolidate bases.
I say let's do the same thing with domestic discretionary programs.
By that I am saying not for the military; we already have a procedure
there. Not for entitlement programs. Let's move forward that way, and
that is a way we can address this issue. That is how we will actually
get back to a balanced budget, not by raising taxes.
As to Iraqi spending, I want to discuss that. I think we should
review and reduce some of the spending in this area that has been
proposed. I have gone through in some detail, not the full proposal yet
but most of it. I think there are areas we should not be paying for.
Memorials to human rights abuses--clearly those are things that would
be good to do. But should we, the American people, the American
taxpayer, be paying for that? Is that central to redeveloping Iraq? I
don't think it is, particularly at this time.

Should we be paying $50,000 per garbage truck? I don't think so, not
in a part of the world that maybe it would be good to have, but there
is probably garbage being collected in old pickup trucks. That is the
way we used to do it in my hometown many years ago. There is nothing
wrong with that, maybe, at the current stage of development. Maybe
later you would use something better. But I think we should take some
of these areas and say, let's pull those down and pull those out and
let's reallocate some into more policing, which is critically important
in Iraq, for us to get our troops garrisoned and less subject to
exposure. Put it in the Iraq development bank, where we can see the
Iraqi people growing their own money and we will be saving some of the
money for our deficit purposes here, working to reduce that. I will be
working with a group of people to put such a proposal together and put
it in front of my colleagues.
I think that is an important part the job of this body, to review
what the President has put forward and see where we agree and let's
pass that and other areas where we would change it.
I do not think it is an option for us not to pass the supplemental.
We need the supplemental for the troops. We need the supplemental to
develop Iraq. It is not an option for us to fail in Iraq. We must
succeed. Indeed, Iraq and its success is central to us bringing forward
a reduction in the swamp area where terrorism has bred and where it has
stewed and where it has grown, in an area we have seen terrorism coming
forth and attacking us. This is an area we have to go out and change.
We change it by bringing forth our ideas and our models of democracy,
of an open society, and of a free economy. This Iraq is going to be an
area where we will have to concentrate and focus, deliver that, and
hopefully that will affect much of the rest of the region. There is
some indication that is already happening.

So you drain the swamp away, and drain it away with our set of ideas.
Failure in Iraq is not an option. We must succeed in Iraq by moving
forward with our model on the war on terrorism, which is we take the
war there rather than letting them gather steam and come at us and kill
our people here.
I think there are legitimate ways to address this issue. I think we
ought to look at the issues of loans versus total grants. This is a
large-scale, oil-based country that wants those production wells going
again. I think there is going to be oil produced and a substantial
amount of income.
I think we ought to look at the overall proposal. There are places
where we should adjust. But overall, we are going to need to pass this
supplemental. For us to raise taxes at a time when we are just getting
the economy going would be the wrong way for us to go as a government,
as a society, and for this country.
We have to allow this growth to continue taking place. The key here
would be instead of reducing our overall spending to look for places we
can save within this overall spending bill.
We are going to have a spirited debate. As we go out for a week and
do townhall meetings across the country--and I will be doing that in my
State--I look forward to gathering a lot of input from individuals. I
think that will be helpful for us as we move forward.
But I don't want us to send an improper signal. Failure in Iraq is
not an option. We cannot fail. We need to do this supplemental, but I
think we can make some changes.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wisconsin.
Mr. KOHL. I thank the Chair.
I rise today to voice my support for the amendment offered by the
Senator from Delaware. His amendment allows us to fully offset the $87
billion cost of the supplemental before us by increasing slightly the
top tax rate in the years 2005 to 2010. This top tax rate--which is
paid only by the wealthiest 1 percent of taxpayers--was cut
dramatically in the two tax cut bills passed since President Bush took
office.
There is broad consensus for the $67 billion in this request for
military and defense spending. And even those of us who voted yesterday
to cut $15 billion in reconstruction funding did so to make the point
that we have lingering questions about the nature of this funding and
who will pay for it. However, our support for funding our obligations
in Iraq doesn't mean that we support adding to the exploding deficits
our Nation is now facing. The Biden amendment does not question whether
we should fund the war--it addresses how we finance our necessary
obligations.
The President has proposed paying for the entire $87 billion with
debt. In a time when our deficit is projected to top half a trillion
dollars a year, this choice is unsupportable.
Our ballooning government debt sucks capital from a private sector
struggling to recover lost manufacturing jobs. The debt places upward
pressure on interest rates, wreaking havoc on the family budgets of
those carrying home loans or consumer debt. The billions we pay in debt
service each year is billions that does not go to our schools, our
roads, or our growing homeland security needs. And a crippling debt is
a terrible legacy for future generations--generations that had no say
in our current policies in Iraq.
Financing this war with debt is a costly and unwise choice. The Biden

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amendment offers another way to pay for what we have an obligation to
do.
On September 7, the President said in a speech to the Nation that the
war and reconstruction of Iraq would require ``time and sacrifice.''
For months, we have asked the young men and women of the Armed Forces
to make the ultimate sacrifice: to fight--and perhaps die--for this
country. Senator Biden's amendment asks another group--the wealthiest 1
percent of all Americans to also sacrifice--to accept a small increase
in a tax rate that was greatly decreased by the Bush tax cuts.
The Senator's amendment offsets the cost of the President's request
by asking the top 1 percent of taxpayers, those in the 35 percent
bracket, to forego approximately $90 billion of the $690 billion in tax
cuts they were granted in the two tax bills we have passed since
President Bush took office. A taxpayer in the top 1 percent has an
average income of $1 million a year. Asking for some financial
sacrifice from these taxpayers seems the least onerous of the options
for financing this war.
Whatever we decide to do with this spending request, we must pay for
it now. Offsetting the cost of this supplemental is the right thing to
do. It asks those who have benefited the most from our thriving economy
to help keep that economy healthy by reducing our growing debt burden.
It relieves future generations of the staggering bill for a policy they
had no part in setting. And it sends a signal to our Armed Forces that,
when the President calls for sacrifice, he is not only calling on them.
I urge my colleagues to support the Biden amendment, and I yield the
floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New York.
Mrs. CLINTON. Mr. President, I commend my friend and colleague from
Wisconsin for a very straightforward and profoundly important summary
of the reasons why we should in a bipartisan manner support the Biden
amendment. The Senator from Wisconsin is an expert on the economy, on
creating jobs, and on building businesses as well as public policy. He
has the understanding that we have to look beyond the horizon if we are
to be leaders to build a better America and a safer world for our
children. I thank the Senator from Wisconsin.
I, too, urge all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to
support the Biden amendment. This is an issue of great importance we
are debating. It is not only essential that we support our troops--
which we all do and feel strongly about--in a fiscally responsible
manner so these young men and women who are fighting and dying in Iraq
will be able to return to a country with a growing economy which is
creating jobs and a responsible government.
At the end of the day, as the Senator from Wisconsin just said, we
are funding this war from our children's inheritance. It is wrong. I
don't care what else you could say about it. That is fundamentally
wrong. We have a chance to act responsibly. Unfortunately, the words
``fiscal responsibility'' and ``fiscal discipline'' apparently are not
found in the current administration's dictionary. There is nothing
responsible or fair about the decisions we are being asked to make.
This administration hasn't really asked for sacrifice from anybody.
But there are people who are sacrificing. First and foremost, our men
and women in uniform, our active duty, our Reserve, our Guard, people
who have now been deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan in our war against
terror, people who have left their families and have been uprooted from
their jobs, they are all sacrificing. And I am grateful and proud of
the work and services they provide.
But this President's budget also asks other Americans to sacrifice.
It asks children and afterschool programs to sacrifice. It asks people
who need job training and additional skills to be employable in this
jobless economy to sacrifice. It asks people who need help with their
heating and cooling bills to sacrifice. It asks those who need child
care services to sacrifice. It asks so many Americans to sacrifice. Yet
it does nothing to remove the burden from those people or our children.
Amazingly enough, those of us who can afford to sacrifice for our
national and international goals are not asked to sacrifice at all. In
fact, it is just the opposite. We are given more and more and more tax
cuts.
What is the administration's policy except to further burden hard-
working, middle-class Americans and future generations and not do
anything to try to in a fiscally responsible way address our needs?
Think about it. Just a few years ago we were in the midst of the
longest string of budget surpluses since the 1920s. We were paying down
our debt, we had historically low numbers of unemployed people, and we
lifted millions of people out of poverty. President Bush said just 2
years ago the country would be virtually debt free by 2008. He said
there would only be $36 billion of remaining debt.
As we have seen in so many instances, the rhetoric does not match the
reality. Today it is projected that our publicly held debt--and some
may not want to hear, but the fact is by 2008 it will reach $6.2
trillion. We have done a tremendous reversal. Who will pay for it? The
young people in this gallery who watch the proceedings in the Senate.
They are the ones who will get the due bill for our profligacy, our
refusal to act responsibly. The administration is denying the absolute
reality that we are not paying as we go for a commitment on which we
have to follow through.
Here we are with a request for $87 billion. I was pleased to hear my
colleague from Kansas on the other side of the aisle say they join in
looking at some of the specifics because some of the specifics are
outrageous. We now know from people coming back from Iraq that a lot of
what the administration says they want to spend money on we can buy
more cheaply than the no-bid contracts the administration favors with
their friends. I was delighted to hear the Senator from Kansas say
let's look at the specifics. But that still does not get us where we
need to go in paying for this.
There will be a big debate about how to pay for this. We can start by
passing the Biden amendment, by being responsible. I also add, this is
good for the economy. All this talk about the increase in the GDP on a
monthly basis--look at the numbers carefully. A lot of it is driven by
deficit spending and spending in Iraq.
Nobody is arguing that is not a good thing that we are having to do
what we said we would do and following on, but be honest and look at
the numbers below the surface. As the Senator from Wisconsin said
correctly, we are going to stall this economy dead in its tracks if it
ever gets off the dime, if it ever begins to create jobs, because we
cannot sustain private capital when we have so many demands growing
from the Government. Furthermore, we are becoming even more dependent
on foreign currencies, on foreign investors. I don't think that is good
for our long-time security either.
Instead of just pushing our country deeper in debt, let's think about
our children, think about those young men and women serving this very
moment in Iraq, and make sure we pay by asking those in the upper 1
percent of the income level in this country to do our fair share to
make a sacrifice. It is a pittance when you think about it. What are we
sacrificing? Instead of $690 billion in tax cuts, we give $600 billion
in tax cuts. Do the right thing. It is good for our commitment in Iraq,
good for our economy, and the very fairest thing we can do for our
children.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Delaware.
Mr. CARPER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to be added as a
cosponsor to the Biden amendment.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. CARPER. Mr. President, I follow up on the comments of the Senator
from New York with respect to sacrifice. Our State is a small State. We
only have about 800,000 people. We have reservists who serve in all the
branches of our military. We have the Delaware National Guard unit.
When I was Governor, I was privileged to be their commander in chief. I
know many of them personally, as well as their families.
When guard and reservists are called to be deployed to active duty,
usually our Governor is there to send them off and tries to be there to
receive them when they come home. Similarly, when it is a unit of
another branch of the

[[Page S12329]]

service--Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines--we like to be there to welcome
them home, too.
I will mention two units, one Marine Reserve unit, the second a unit
of the Delaware National Guard, folks who fly and maintain the C-130
cargo aircraft, part of the air bridge between this country and other
parts around the world.
About 2 weeks ago, I was invited to be part of a welcome home
ceremony for a number of Marine reservists. They had been called to
active duty. They served in Iraq. They were able to come home to their
families. They came home largely to their spouses--mostly to wives--
they came home to their children, came home to brothers and sisters,
moms and dads in many cases, they came home to their neighbors, and
they came home to their jobs. I don't think it is overstating it to say
they are thrilled to be home--proud of their service, thrilled to be
home.
I had another unit in the Delaware National Air Guard 166. The people
who fly and maintain the C-130 cargo aircraft were activated earlier
this year and spent 4 months on active duty and then were released to
come home to a great homecoming ceremony, a lot of joy. Then they were
reactivated roughly a month ago and headed back on the other side of
the world. I am not sure when they are coming home.
They missed the return of their children to school, will probably not
be around to take the kids out to trick or treat this year. When their
families sit around and eat at the Thanksgiving table and carve up the
turkey, they probably won't be there. When presents are opened around
Christmastime, God only knows where they will be. Those families know
what it means to sacrifice, not just the ones who are overseas--whether
they are Delaware National Guard, any National Guard, any Reserve unit,
or anyone on active duty.
It is one thing to ask the sacrifice of those who serve. As one who
once served, that is your job description. You are expected to be
prepared to go and serve when needed. It is always toughest on those
who stay behind because they give up their loved one, they give up
someone who is helping to hold the family together in many cases; in
some cases they give up a breadwinner who has gone off to earn a far
lower salary. They know what sacrifice is.
What the Biden amendment says is, for those who are blessed with
great financial well-being, whose income exceeds $300,000 per year
adjusted gross income, maybe we can do something, too. We may not have
a child, a son or a daughter; we may not have a brother or sister. And
I know Senator Johnson has a son who I believe still serves over there,
but for the most part we do not. For the most part, people with those
incomes do not. But we have the ability to do something to help out in
this case. I don't think it is asking too much for those who happen to
make that kind of income to be willing to defer maybe $2,000 a year to
help make sure that our children and our grandchildren do not inherit
an even greater mountain of debt.
Let me close with one comment. Sometimes you talk to people about the
amount of debt and the numbers are almost numbing. Let me leave you
with this number: Today, on this day of October 2, we will make an
interest payment on our national debt--imagine a credit card--an
interest payment on our national debt. The interest payment is $882
million.
We can bemoan that fact and say that is terrible, why don't we do
something about it, or we can, with our vote today, do something about
it and make sure we do not add further to that debt.
A fellow who used to be the British Chancellor of the Exchequer had a
theory of holes. That theory was as follows: When you find yourself in
a hole, stop digging.
We are in a hole, and it is time to stop digging.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Alexander). The Senator from South Dakota.
Mr. JOHNSON. Mr. President, I rise in support of the Biden amendment.
There is no question we will support our troops. My colleague from
Delaware mentioned my own son Brooks, who has recently returned from
fighting in Iraq, in Baghdad; outside of Kandahar, Afghanistan prior to
that; and Kosovo and Bosnia prior to that. So I have a full
appreciation, as do my colleagues on both sides of the aisle in this
Chamber, that our fighting men and women deserve all the resources they
need, and we will do all it takes to make sure they have those
resources.
But there is the larger question of the $87 billion, particularly I
think the $20.3 billion component for so-called rebuilding in Iraq,
although when we say ``rebuilding,'' keep in mind that the President is
not talking about rebuilding things that were damaged in the war; the
President is talking about creating schools, whole new cities, whole
new water and telecommunications systems that have never existed in all
of Iraq's history.
But the fundamental question we have here at this moment is, How will
this be paid for?
There have been essentially--until the Biden amendment--two
strategies. One is that Iraq borrow the money and build it themselves.
They sit atop the world's largest supply of oil, literally a mountain
of gold. Granted, they do not have the technology to pump that oil
quickly at this point in their history, but it is there and could be
collateralized.
Second is the President's recommendation, where, rather than Iraq
borrowing to pay for the $87 billion, we borrow it to pay for the $87
billion, because we do not have $87 billion either. We do not have $87
billion in cash lying around. In fact, we have gone from record budget
surpluses only 2 years ago to, under the guidance of this President, an
annual deficit now approaching $500 billion a year. It is a
breathtaking record deficit that we face. So we do not have any surplus
money to be used anywhere, including in Iraq.
The President says: Well, we do not want Iraqis to have to borrow
because that might raise their debt service cost, despite the fact they
have the world's largest pool of oil. Instead, let's borrow it out of
our Social Security trust fund. That is the President's strategy. I
think it is a terrible strategy. We have been doing too much of that as
it is. To borrow still more, and drive our deficit still deeper, to put
Social Security in still greater jeopardy in the outyears is, to me,
not an acceptable strategy.
Senator Biden has suggested there is a third way. If the President
simply will not accept the fact that Iraq ought to borrow this money
themselves, then at least let's not borrow it out of the Social
Security trust fund from the United States; let's allow those who have
benefited the greatest by the growth of the United States economy--
those 1 percent of Americans who earn over $300,000 a year--to have a
temporary freeze in the tax reductions over the course of 5 years that
would pay the $87 billion.
It troubles me that this President and some of our colleagues--who
are constantly lecturing us about how there is not enough money for our
own schools, for our own highways, for our own health care, for our own
veterans, for our own job creation--are the very first ones to come to
this body and tell us how badly we need to spend that same amount of
money in Iraq, and borrow it out of the Social Security trust fund
while we are at it. It is not acceptable to me.

I have to wonder about those kinds of priorities when we have such
great unmet needs here and when, Heaven knows, we are also facing
stupendous budget deficits. So it does seem to me that Senator Biden is
correct in saying, let's not go down the borrowing route ourselves,
let's pay for this, if it needs to be paid for. And, frankly, there are
many components of that $20 billion piece which I am dubious about, but
if we are going to pay for any of this, let's pay for it by making sure
that ordinary Americans are not hit once again.
As was noted earlier, our troops and their families are making
immense sacrifices, for many the ultimate sacrifice. But there are
other people who are making sacrifices as well--in terms of crowded
classrooms, in terms of schools that are not being repaired, in terms
of technology that we cannot afford in our schools, in terms of those
who have no access to health care, in terms of rural hospitals that are
closing, in terms of veterans who have no access to the VA, and in
terms of those who have lost their jobs and see no jobs in the near
future. All of those people are sacrificing as well.

[[Page S12330]]

If there is going to be sacrifice, let it be by the 1 percent rather
than borrowing this money.
I thank the Chair.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.
The Senator from Delaware.
Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, parliamentary inquiry: How much time is
available to the Senator from Delaware?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Thirty minutes.
Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, I yield 1 minute, if I may--I know it is
out of order. Our friend from Maryland has asked for 1 minute. I would
be delighted to yield that to him, and then I would ask, after that, to
yield 1 minute to my friend from Florida. And then I think, in the
order, Senator Reed is in the queue for 5 minutes, and then the Senator
from Illinois, and then the Senator from North Dakota. I ask unanimous
consent that be the order.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. BIDEN. I thank the Chair.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland.
Mr. SARBANES. Mr. President, I want to pick up on a point that the
Senator from South Dakota just made, and that is the question of
sacrifice. The people in this country who are making sacrifices in this
war in Iraq are the working people and the men and women in our armed
services.
The men and women who are losing their lives and suffering casualties
come overwhelmingly from working families in America. Overwhelmingly
they are the ones who are unable to meet their families' needs, and
their own needs, because our national priorities have disastrously
changed and the impact has fallen on particularly crucial programs:
education, health care, job training--you can go right down the list.
The deficits we are running, the huge national debt that is being run
up will come down on the shoulders of working families in this country.
If you want to talk about sacrifice, pass the Biden amendment.
It is time for the privileged in this country to make sacrifices,
too. It is not their men and women who are in Iraq. It is not their
programs that are being hit. They are not shouldering the debt.
They, too, should be making a sacrifice on behalf of this national
effort.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.
The Senator from Florida.
Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, this Nation's fiscal policy is
careening off the road into bankruptcy. And that means, if we are
having to go out and borrow money--by the way, borrowing it from places
such as Saudi Arabia and the Chinese--in order to pay our bills, that
means we are not able to spend money going into education and health
care and Social Security.
You have to get some relief somewhere. This is a good place. Stop the
tax cuts that are supposed to be going into effect for the wealthiest,
and let that $87 billion pay for these expenses that are incurred in
Iraq.
I thank the Chair.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.
Mr. REED. Mr. President, the Biden amendment is very straightforward.
It says we will pay for the $87 billion by repealing the tax advantages
for those who have the upper 1 percent in income in the United States.
In my view, this is not an issue of taxes or payments; this is a
simple issue of responsibility. It is irresponsible for us to borrow
money from Social Security, borrow money from Medicare, borrow money
from education spending, borrow money from the Veterans' Administration
to give to the Iraqi people. We can, in fact, pay for it. We can pay
for it by supporting the Biden amendment.
My colleague from Maryland spoke about the sacrifice of these
soldiers, sailors, airmen, airwomen, and marines who are over in Iraq.
Just ask yourself: What happens 5 years from now when those young
Americans go to the Veterans' Administration and they are told they
cannot be accommodated because we do not have enough money, that we
borrowed so much money that our economy is in disarray, and that our
programs that support American people have been devastated?
We have a situation in which our deficits are growing out of
proportion, the national debt is rising. In January of 2001, the CBO
estimated that the national debt in 2008 would be $36 billion. In fact,
the President at that time was talking about paying off all of our
debt, and now, in August of 2003, CBO projects a debt of $6.2 trillion
in 2008. Deficits are expanding dramatically. Again and again they go
up and up and up. Now we are talking about a $535 billion deficit.
This has an effect. It is not free money. The effect is in many
dimensions. One dimension is that ultimately it will drive up interest
rates. That is not my view. That is the view of Alan Greenspan, in his
words:

There is no question that as deficits go up, contrary to
what some have said, it does affect long-term interest rates.
It does have a negative impact on the economy, unless
attended.

This is one way we can attend to the deficit. Or the words of the CBO
Director:

To the extent that going forward we run large sustained
deficits in the face of full employment, it will in fact
crowd out capital accumulation and otherwise slow economic
growth.

We are today, by spending and not raising the revenues to support
that spending, contributing to this out-of-control deficit spiral that
will affect our economy.
There is another consequence that goes to responsibility. How can we
be a world leader, how can we sustain our efforts in Iraq, in
Afghanistan, across the globe, if our economy becomes unraveled, as it
is becoming?
Of course, there is an immediate issue. We are losing employment left
and right, particularly manufacturing employment. How do we sustain
manufacturing in the United States? What happens when their interest
rates go up, when they have to pay more money to borrow? That is
another invitation to take their work and send it overseas. What
happens when their health care costs go up? And they will, unless we do
more to support the Medicare system, the Medicaid system, and general
health insurance throughout the United States, another pressure.
This is all irresponsible. We have huge problems. We have much to do
to deal with those problems. But we can begin today and simply say,
rather than giving the Iraqi people $87 billion from Social Security,
from health care, from education, we can ask the top 1 percent of
Americans, who have done extraordinarily well, to forgo a tax break so
that we can pay for this.
It is responsible. This vote today is not about taxes. It is not
about our approach to Iraq. It is not about supporting the troops. It
is about whether we will be responsible today and in the future. I urge
that we go forth and be responsible.
My colleague from Maryland also pointed out the sacrifice. We all
know our forces are doing a magnificent job. They are truly
sacrificing, and we are going to support them. But their sacrifice must
be met not only with our sacrifice but with some wisdom, the ability to
look ahead, the ability to see what is coming. What is coming is an
economic deterioration of this country unless we can get our hands on
this deficit.
This is the first step. It is a modest step, but it is a first step.
What better rationale, to ask the people of America to contribute their
hard-earned dollars and support our troops, support our foreign policy,
support an effort to root out dangers to this country? In fact, in
times of war, the American people have always responded, and other
Congresses and other administrations have responded when we have asked
them for increased sacrifices and increased taxes.
None of the Biden proposal will affect the middle class, the working
class. It is responsible. To vote against this amendment would be
irresponsible. I urge its passage.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois.
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, if you study the sweep of history in the
United States and the history of the Presidency, you understand that at
times of crisis the President has an opportunity to rally the American
people, to summon them to a higher calling and a greater commitment
than

[[Page S12331]]

they might otherwise reach. Time and again, each President faced with a
national challenge has tried his best to do just that.
In this situation, after 9/11, President Bush came to us and summoned
the American people to be unified. It was demonstrated in the Senate
with a bipartisan resolution supporting our effort in the war on
terrorism, an overwhelming vote supporting the President. He summoned
us to humility. Many of us joined with the President at the National
Cathedral in a day of prayer to recall just what had happened to so
many innocent people and to once again remind ourselves of our
dependence on our values and our principles and on God Himself.
He also summoned us to courage and the courage that America has to
display every day in confronting the war on terrorism.
President Bush also has summoned us to sacrifice. But he has not
summoned all of us to sacrifice. He has summoned the men and women in
uniform to sacrifice because they literally put their lives on the line
every single day in this war on terrorism, in the invasion of Iraq and
in peacekeeping afterwards. He has asked these men and women to
understand the oath they took to our country and to step forward
proudly and defend our flag and our values. That call to sacrifice has
been answered affirmatively over and over again while hundreds have
been killed in Iraq and literally hundreds and perhaps thousands have
been seriously injured.
When it comes to sacrifice otherwise, the President asks little or
nothing of the rest of America. I believe if President Bush had come to
America and said, I need a spirit of sacrifice from everyone--rich and
poor alike, not just those in uniform but every single person--there
would have been an overwhelmingly positive response. But no, instead of
asking for sacrifice, the President said to the wealthiest in America,
to those who are well off and have little discomfort in their lives: We
ask nothing. In fact, we will give you something. We will give you a
tax cut. We will give you money--not a sacrifice asked of the wealthy
and well off but, frankly, to give them more comfort and luxury in
their life. That is hardly what the President should have done in
rallying America to face this crisis.
Here we stand today, facing the amendment of the Senator from
Delaware, Mr. Biden, which asks us to look in honest terms at the $87
billion the President has asked for, for Iraq: $68 billion for the
troops, another $20 billion for the reconstruction.
We know President Bush and his administration have had no plan when
it comes to revitalizing the American economy. This President has lost
more American jobs on his watch than any President in 70 years. He has
lost more jobs than any President since Herbert Hoover in the Great
Depression. Frankly, that is a stain on his performance as President
and reflects the fact that all of the tax cuts he has proposed have not
revitalized this economy, have not moved us forward and, in fact, have
cost us jobs.
It is clear, as well, this administration had no plan when it came to
rebuilding Iraq. A few months ago, some of the leaders in this
administration were coming forward and telling us we would not even
need to be here today to ask for $87 billion. Secretary Rumsfeld said:
I don't expect that we are going to need to ask the taxpayers for
money; look at all the oil revenue in Iraq. The same thing was said by
Vice President Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz. All of the men behind the
strategy to attack Iraq told us over and over again it was painless, it
wouldn't cost us.

We are here today knowing it will cost us. The President told us in
his speech to the American people just a few weeks ago: $87 billion is
the cost. This administration had no plan to deal with it and no plan
to pay for it.
How will we face this? We will face this as we faced the Vietnam war,
a war which was financed by deficits. Instead of cutting spending or
raising taxes to pay for the cost of Iraq, we are going to see the
national debt increased. We are going to see the funds available for
our schools, for health care, for Social Security cut because we have
decided we are not going to ask anyone to sacrifice to pay this $87
billion.
I believe we have a responsibility to stand up and do the right
thing, to ask the wealthiest in America to pay their fair share, to say
to them: We are not going to give you a tax break that has been
promised so the money will be there to pay for this war. It is the
responsible thing to do. Instead of pushing this burden on the men and
women in uniform fighting today and on our children tomorrow with an
increased national debt, we are going to stand for the premise that we
should pay for the defense of America; we should pay for the cost of
reconstruction in Iraq.
I support the Biden amendment and urge my colleagues to do the same.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey is recognized.
Mr. CORZINE. Mr. President, I, too, rise to stand in support of the
Biden amendment. The concept of shared sacrifice is fundamental to the
American life--something all of our predecessors on this floor and the
people of America through history have understood. In times of war, we
have understood we all have to participate.
It should be no different this time. It is clearly a time when we
have not asked for our society to stand up and accept the
responsibility--financial responsibility--of standing with those men
and women who are sacrificing their lives for us. Instead of actually
husbanding our resources so we can carry on that struggle and stand
with our men and women in uniform, we are actually undermining that by
putting our financial condition into real jeopardy, both now and for a
long time into the future.
In guns-and-butter policy, one that is totally discredited throughout
any kind of analysis, whether in the private sector or academia--and it
should be here on the floor--we are now facing $535 billion budget
deficits in the coming fiscal year, with budget deficits of that
dimension long into the future, borrowing against the retirement
security of our seniors and our Social Security trust fund, using the
payroll taxes people are reportedly putting into Social Security to
protect their retirement to fund tax cuts, at the same time we are
actually at war to protect the American people.
It is time for us to husband our resources and make sure we don't
sacrifice everything on the homefront, whether it is economic security,
retirement security, homeland security; all of these issues are short
of funding. We hear about it and we cut it back. We make sure we are
very precise there, and then we are not willing, for those who are
benefiting most in society, who have actually enjoyed the American
prosperity the most, to sacrifice marginal amounts to be able to fund
an initiative that is proper to protect our troops and take the
responsibility for a broken economy, a broken society that, in many
ways, is a responsibility we have had because we entered into this.
I think it is absolutely essential, and I think many of the people
who benefit from the reduced tax rates we are talking about not going
ahead and executing will benefit more because we will have a sounder
economy, and we will create greater wealth in the economy, and they
will welcome the idea that they are actually able to share in some of
these burdens as we go forward. As a matter of fact, I know that at a
personal level, from conversations I have had across this country,
there is a desire to be asked to help.
It is really a major mistake, a major shortfall, on our sense of
responsibility to the Nation if we don't call for making sure we
provide funding for this initiative--this $87 billion the President has
asked for. I stand strongly in favor of the Biden amendment. I
encourage colleagues to as well. This Nation believes in shared
sacrifice. We should show it by supporting this amendment.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota is recognized.
Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I want to start by putting in perspective
where we are in the fiscal condition of the country as we consider this
request from the President for $87 billion for Iraq.
I think it is important for us first to recognize we already face
next year a record budget deficit of $535 billion. But that really
understates the seriousness of the problem because, on top of that,
under the President's proposal, we will also be taking $160 billion of

[[Page S12332]]

Social Security trust fund money to pay for other things. That gives a
total operating deficit for next year approaching $700 billion.
Some have said, well, it is really relatively small as a share of our
gross domestic product. That is not correct. Fairly measured, the
operating deficit next year is the biggest we have had since World War
II. If we look at the Social Security trust fund, if we back that out
and we treat it the same way in 1983, what we see is the deficit as a
percentage of GDP is the biggest it has been since World War II. This
is a huge deficit, however measured.
The President has told us these deficits will be small and short
term. Wrong again. They are not small; they are huge by any terms,
dollar terms or GDP terms. Beyond that, they are long lasting. In fact,
according to the President's own analysis, they go on and on and on,
and they get worse as the baby boom generation begins to retire. Just
over the next decade, we see an ocean of red ink. According to
Congressional Budget Office numbers, if we just add in proposals to
extend the tax cuts, to add a prescription drug benefit, and to provide
AMT reform, there will be deficits of $600 billion, $700 billion, as
far as the eye can see.
We have a problem of spending and of revenue. The revenue as a
percentage of gross domestic product next year will be the lowest since
1950. That is a revenue crisis, as well as a spending problem. If we
look at the spending side of the equation, we can see the increases in
discretionary spending over the baseline have occurred overwhelmingly
in just three areas: defense, homeland security, and rebuilding New
York and providing airline relief. In 2003, ninety-two percent of the
increased spending is in those areas. I might add those are areas that
all of us, on a bipartisan basis, supported.
The President of the United States told us 2 years ago he would
virtually pay off the debt. He said by 2008 there would be virtually no
publicly held debt left. Now what we see is, instead of the debt being
virtually eliminated, we see it skyrocketing. The gross debt of the
United States, we estimate, will be $6.8 trillion by the end of this
year. In 10 years, we estimate it will be approaching $15 trillion--all
at the worst possible time. It is the worst possible time because the
baby boom generation is going to begin retiring in 2008.
On this chart, the green bar is the Social Security trust fund, the
blue bar is the Medicare trust fund, and the red bar is the cost of the
tax cuts--those that have already passed and those that are proposed by
the President. What this shows is, at the very time the Social Security
and Medicare trust funds go cash negative--at that very time, the costs
of the President's tax cuts explode, driving us deeper and deeper into
deficit and debt.
You don't have to take my word for it, or the Congressional Budget
Office's word for it. You can take the President's word for it. Here is
the calculation from his budget of what would happen if we followed his
proposals, his tax cuts, his spending. What it shows is we never get
out of deficit and that the deficits explode. This is as a percentage
of gross domestic product--which he prefers to refer to now to try to
understate the magnitude of the problem.
Look at what his own analysis shows. It shows these are the good
times, even though there are record deficits--the biggest we have ever
had in dollar terms, and as a percentage of GDP since World War II. But
it is going to get much worse.
The Congressional Budget Office warned us, as the New York Times
reported it on September 14:

This course prompted the Congressional Budget Office to
issue an unusual warning in its forecast last month: If
Congressional Republicans and the administration get their
wish and extend all the tax cuts now scheduled to expire, and
if they pass a limited prescription drug benefit for Medicare
and keep spending at its current level, the deficit by 2013
will have built up to $6.2 trillion. Once the baby boomers
begin retiring at the end of this decade, the office said,
that course will lead either to drastically higher taxes,
severe spending cuts or ``unsustainable levels of debt.''

Just this week, the Committee for Economic Development, major
business leaders in the country, the Concord Coalition, and the Center
on Budget and Policy Priorities warned of the dangers of the current
fiscal course. They said:

To get a sense of the magnitude of the deficits the nation
is likely to face without a change in policies, consider that
even with the full economic recovery that CBO forecasts and a
decade of economic growth, balancing the budget by the end of
the coming decade (i.e., in 2013) would entail such radical
steps as: raising individual and corporate income taxes by 27
percent; or eliminating Medicare entirely; or cutting Social
Security benefits by 60 percent; or shutting down three-
fourths of the Defense Department; or cutting all
expenditures, other than Social Security, Medicare, defense,
homeland security, and interest payments on the debt--
including expenditures for education, transportation,
housing, the environment, law enforcement, national parks,
research on diseases, and the rest--by 40 percent. Beyond the
next decade, the tradeoffs become even more difficult.

When we look now to what the President is proposing in this $87
billion, and we look back at what we were told--remember when Larry
Lindsey, the President's chief economic adviser, said it would cost
$100 billion to $200 billion for our involvement in Iraq, and he was
chastised by this administration? The head of the Office of Management
and Budget said he was way off. He wasn't way off. He was right on. We
are already at $140 billion for this Iraqi undertaking.
The administration has been wrong, wrong, wrong. They have been wrong
repeatedly. They are wrong about the deficits. They said there wouldn't
be any. Then they said they were going to be small. Then they said they
were small as a percentage of gross domestic product. They were wrong
on each count.
Then they told us: Iraq won't cost much. Here is what Ari Fleischer,
the President's chief spokesman, said on February 18 of this year:

And Iraq, unlike Afghanistan, is a rather wealthy country.
Iraq has tremendous resources that belong to the Iraqi
people. And so there are a variety of means that Iraq has to
be able to shoulder much of the burden for their own
reconstruction.

What happened? The administration told us Iraq was going to be able
to pay, they were going to be able to cover much of the cost of their
own reconstruction. Now that proves to be wrong as well.
This administration repeatedly told us the cost of Iraqi
reconstruction could be largely borne by Iraq. Here is what the Deputy
Secretary of Defense said before the House Appropriations Subcommittee
on Defense in March of this year:

The oil revenues of Iraq could bring between $50 and $100
billion over the course of the next 2 or 3 years . . . We're
dealing with a country that can really finance its own
reconstruction, and relatively soon.

Wrong again. And just months later they are asking for $20 billion,
and that is just a downpayment. Make no mistake, they are going to be
here asking for more, and they are going to be here asking for more
soon because they have already acknowledged they need another $40
billion or $50 billion for Iraqi reconstruction. They say they are
going to get it from somewhere else. Where else? When we ask them, they
say they have a big donors conference coming up. Do you know how much
has been pledged? $1.5 billion. Where is the other $40 billion or $50
billion going to come from? They are going to be right back here asking
for more.
They misled this Congress. They misled the American people. They did
it repeatedly on issue after issue.
Here is what their USAID Administrator, Mr. Natsios, said on April 23
of this year:

That's correct. $1.7 billion is the limit of reconstruction
for Iraq. . . . In terms of the American taxpayer
contribution, that is it for the U.S. The rest of the
rebuilding of Iraq will be done by other countries and Iraqi
oil revenues.

Wrong again. Wrong, wrong, wrong, and not just by a little bit; these
folks have been wrong by a lot. Whether it was talking about the
deficit or talking about the war with Iraq or the reconstruction of
Iraq, this is a record of being wrong; wrong on major point after major
point, over and over.

They say to us now:

What we're focused on in the $20 billion is the urgent and
essential things.

The $20 billion is the urgent and essential things. Really? Let's
look. In this plan, there is $6,000 per radio/telephone. It costs for a
satellite phone in this country $495. It costs for a walkie-talkie $55.
Why when we go to Iraq all of a sudden phones cost $6,000? A satellite
phone, where one can call anywhere in the world, costs less than $500,

[[Page S12333]]

and this administration is coming before this body and saying they need
$6,000 per phone.
They want $33,000 per pickup truck. We have a lot of pickup trucks in
our State. We have more pickup trucks being sold than any other kind of
automobiles. The average cost of an award winning American truck is
$15,400, and they want us to spend $33,000 per truck in Iraq.
They want us to pay $50,000 per prison bed. In this country, it costs
$14,000 to build a prison bed. I don't know who did these calculations,
but they seem an awful lot more eager to spend money in Iraq than they
are to spend money in this country. It goes on and on.
They want $10,000 a month for business school in Iraq. In our
country, it costs $4,000 a month for the best business schools, and we
are going to be telling the American taxpayers they should spend
$10,000 per month for business school? Who put these numbers together?
Who came up with this plan?
The one that maybe is most incredible of all is the witness
protection program. They want $200,000 per family member. For a family
of five, that is $1 million, and $100 million to protect 100 families.
In our country, the witness protection program costs $10,000 per
witness. In Iraq, this is going to cost $1 million for a family of
five. We don't have a witness protection program like that in this
country. We have nothing like it. This is 20 times as much in Iraq.
They want $333 for 30 half-days of computer training. It costs $200
in this country.
This doesn't stand much scrutiny. This whole plan doesn't stand much
scrutiny, and it is time for us to ask the tough questions. Clearly,
this administration has not asked the tough questions.
I just found out they have $3 billion for water projects in Iraq,
when they proposed in our country cutting water projects by 40 percent.
They cut the water projects in America 40 percent and put in $3 billion
for water projects in Iraq. I don't think the American people had any
idea they were signing up to pay for a ZIP Code in Iraq or to have a
witness protection program that costs $1 million a family or that they
were going to be building $3 billion worth of water projects in Iraq.
That wasn't the deal they signed onto. That is the deal this
administration wants us to take, and all of this in the midst of the
biggest deficits in our history, when we are having to borrow every
dime. It does not make any sense. The very least we should do is pay
for these costs and not put it on the charge card one more time. That
is why the Biden amendment should be supported. He is asking the
wealthiest among us to pay it.
This is not a matter of what some people claim of going after the
rich. Look, my wife and I are in this category. We pay additional taxes
under this amendment. I am voting it because it is the right thing to
do. We should not be increasing the deficit of the United States.
We should not be putting it on the charge card when we already have
record deficits. We ought to pony up and pay for the decisions we have
made. Paying for this would just be a beginning. We would still have
record deficits, by far the biggest in our history. We ought to support
this amendment as a sign that we are getting serious about facing up to
our fiscal challenges in this country. We also ought to adopt a series
of amendments to cut the waste out of this proposal by the
administration.
If this measure is not adopted, we ought to support other amendments
to pay for these initiatives and other amendments to scrub this whole
proposal for the fat and the waste that is so clearly included. It is
intolerable to say to the American taxpayer, pay these costs, all of it
with borrowed money, all of it to be paid by future generations of
Americans. That is not the way we have conducted ourselves in the past,
and it ought not to be the way we conduct ourselves now and in the
future.
I urge my colleagues to support the Biden amendment.
I thank the Chair and yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.
Mr. GRASSLEY. It is my understanding that we have 6 minutes 20
seconds remaining on our side.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Six minutes twenty seconds, correct.
Mr. GRASSLEY. I yield myself such time as I might consume of that
amount.
There are three big problems with Senator Biden's amendment. One is
substantive and two are procedural. Before I go into the problems with
Senator Biden's amendment, I will say that I agree with everybody's
concern, including his, about the size of the package and the concern
that we should have about the Federal deficit. Hopefully, as the
economy grows--and the last figures indicate it is growing now at 3.4
percent--Federal revenues will return then to their average levels of
18 to 19 percent of the gross domestic product, which is an average of
over the last 60 years, and we will close the gap.
I also point to the fact that there are really two sides to the
Federal ledger. One is the revenue side; that is, what comes in from
the taxes paid by our factory workers, office workers, and farmers from
across the America. The other side of the ledger is the spending side
of the ledger, the appropriations bills by the Congress of the United
States.
My friends on the other side of the aisle, as Senator Biden's
amendment shows, are zeroing in exclusively on the tax side. They look
only to the taxpayers to put our fiscal house in order. I agree with
the goal of reducing the deficit. I disagree that it is appropriate to
look at only one side as if what is wrong with America and what is the
cause of the deficit is that American taxpayers are undertaxed and that
in no way Congress overspends. Indeed, the Finance Committee approved a
bill yesterday that included $55 billion in revenue offsets. So
Republicans have been willing to exercise fiscal discipline, especially
when it comes to closing corporate loopholes and curtailing tax
shelters.

I ask the full Senate, who was the last Democrat to propose any
savings on the spending side of the ledger? I do not recall a single
spending cut being proposed by those on the other side of the aisle.
Maybe back in the mid-1990s, but we would have to go back many years.
All I see, and Senator Santorum makes this clear with his spendometer
chart, is spending increases. So if those on the other side want to
claim to be fiscal disciplinarians, let us see entries on the spending
side of the ledger in order for there to be credibility. We cannot just
go to the American people and ask for more tax money.
Let me also say that I am concerned about the degree to which
taxpayers are financing reconstruction in Iraq on a blank check basis.
I first raised this concern almost a year ago. We ought to be very
careful about the structure of this aid package. Maybe it should be a
loan or have some equity interest for the taxpayers.
Now I would like to turn to Senator Biden's amendment. Let us go to
the substantive problems first. Senator Biden is seeking to offset the
President's $87 billion request with a tax increase. For 2001, the top
rate was reduced to 38.6. For 2003, the top rate was reduced to 35
percent. Senator Biden's amendment would raise the top rate to 38.2
percent. The premise of Senator Biden's position seems to be that
taxpayers in the top bracket are solely Park Avenue millionaires,
clipping coupons and enjoying life. Well, the facts show quite
differently.
According to the Treasury Department, about 80 percent of the
benefits of the top rate go to small businessowners, people who create
80 percent of the new jobs in America. For the first time in many
years, because of our tax bills, we have that top rate down to 35
percent, which is the very same as Fortune 500 companies. Senator
Biden's amendment would restore a 10-percent penalty against small
business, 38.2 percent, as opposed to 35 percent now for small
business, the same as corporations.
I do not quarrel with the notion that taxpayers in the top bracket
make incomes starting in the range of around $350,000 to $400,000. A
lot of these successful small businessowners make those figures. But
keep in mind that figure represents the total net income of those small
businesses. Successful small businesses are those that purchase the
equipment and hire those

[[Page S12334]]

new workers that I referred to as 80 percent of the new jobs.
I ask my friends on the other side of the aisle who are eager to
raise taxes--they are reluctant to cut spending and eager to increase
spending--to focus on the negative effects of their policy on small
business. Small business creates many jobs. Why at this time, with high
unemployment, would we want to raise taxes on the folks who create 80
percent of the new jobs?
Just yesterday, the Finance Committee, on a 19-2 vote, reported a
bill designed to cut the top marginal rate for small business
manufacturers to 32 percent. Senator Biden's amendment would go the
other way and hammer our small business manufacturers.
Now, let's discuss the two procedural problems.
The first procedural problem is also constitutional. Under the
Constitution, revenue measures must originate in the House. Senator
Biden's amendment is a tax increase. It is a clear case of a revenue
measure. The Ways and Means Committee has indicated the House will
exercise its Constitutional prerogative and ``blue slip'' this bill if
it contains Senator Biden's amendment. A blue slip kills this bill. We
go back to square one. A vote for the Biden amendment is a vote to stop
aid to our troops. It is a vote to stop aid to the Iraqi people at a
critical time.
Let me repeat that point. A vote for the Biden amendment is a vote
against aid to our troops. A vote for the Biden amendment is a vote
against assistance to the Iraqi people.
From my own perspective, as chairman of the Finance Committee, I have
to warn members of our committee that the Biden amendment raises a
fundamental tax issue on an unrelated bill. The Biden amendment treads
on Finance Committee's jurisdiction. Every Finance Committee member
should oppose Senator Biden's amendment on that basis alone. But, most
importantly, this amendment is a reckless attack on our economic
recovery and I strongly urge its defeat.
I ask Senators to defeat the Biden amendment and not increase taxes
on small business.
Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Mr. President, this amendment is not about whether
or not we ought to appropriate the funds that President Bush has
requested for our efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Rather, this
amendment addresses the question of whether this Congress is willing to
pay the bill or whether we will pass it on to future generations. I am
unwilling to tell the children in West Virginia that I believe they
should pay this bill when they grow up when there is a reasonable
alternative.
If we do not offset the $87 billion cost of this emergency
supplemental request, then it will be added to our Nation's deficit.
Already, without this spending, the Federal deficit for fiscal year
2004 is projected to be $480 billion. That number is staggering. Prior
to this administration, the largest deficit this government ever had in
a single year was $290 billion. So already, we know that our deficit
will be higher than ever before, by a lot. Without this amendment, we
would add another $87 billion to this deficit. Our deficit would hit
$567 billion--almost twice the size of the previous record deficit.
These are not just numbers. Such enormous deficits have consequences.
Our children will have to pay these bills. Instead of investing in
education or roads or military preparedness for their own generation,
they will still be paying the bills for our generation. Already we have
saddled future generations with almost $7 trillion in debt. We
absolutely must not add to that debt when this amendment offers an
alternative.
We also know that such large deficits will have an impact for our own
generation. As Federal debt increases, it will put pressure on long
term interest rates, which will hurt every middle class family trying
to pay their mortgage. And I am certain that in the coming weeks my
colleagues will say that we have to cut spending on education, health
care, infrastructure, unemployment compensation, and other critical
domestic priorities in order to reduce the deficit. Make no mistake:
adding to the deficit today, will increase pressure to squeeze out
spending that benefits low and middle income Americans at a time when
they are already struggling.
Increasing the burden on low and middle income Americans would be
spectacularly unfair. As I travel around West Virginia, I talk to many
families who have children serving in the armed forces in Iraq or
Afghanistan. Thousands of West Virginians have been called up to serve
in the National Guard or Reserves. They are not millionaires. They are
patriotic West Virginians with modest incomes, and they are already
sacrificing things more valuable than money to make our military
efforts a success.
So let me discuss for a moment what sacrifice this amendment asks
for. This amendment says that those with incomes greater than $311,950
should pay a top income tax rate of 38.2 percent in the years 2005
through 2010. Even with this change, the top income tax rate will be
lower than it was when President Bush took office. In fact, of the $690
billion in tax cuts that this President has signed into law that are
targeted at the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans, $600 billion in tax
cuts would still be in place. Under this amendment, a person making $1
million per year would still get a tax cut of more than $20,000
compared to what he or she would have paid in 2000, prior to this
President's tax cuts taking effect. It is not asking for an undue
sacrifice to ask a millionaire to settle for a $20,000 tax cut. I wish
there were more people in West Virginia that would see this $20,000 tax
cut, but of course, only the wealthiest fraction of taxpayers, less
than 1 percent, would be affected by this amendment.
I will be supporting this amendment because I cannot explain to
children in West Virginia that giving a millionaire a tax cut greater
than $20,000 was more important to me than their future. I hope that my
colleagues will think carefully about this stark choice, and join me in
supporting Senator Biden's amendment.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The time controlled by the majority has
expired.
The Senator from Delaware.
Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, I think I have some time. If the majority
wants more time, that is fine by me. I yield myself such time as I may
consume. I want to take a minute or so to respond to my friend, the
chairman of the Finance Committee, while he is in the Chamber.
Mr. REID. Will the Senator yield briefly?
Mr. BIDEN. Sure, without losing my right to the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nevada.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, the author of this amendment has
approximately 25 minutes remaining. We have been informed that there is
going to be an effort by the majority to have a vote at 3:45 rather
than 3:15, which is fine with us. I have also been told that the
chairman of the Budget Committee wants to speak for up to 5 minutes. So
if there is no objection to that, could we have 5 minutes additional on
each side?
Mr. NICKLES. If I might modify the request of the Senator, I ask
unanimous consent that the vote occur at 3:45 with 15 minutes allotted
to each side.
Now, I was not aware that originally Senator Biden, in his eloquent
negotiations, already had a 2-hour advantage over this side. There
might be a few additional remarks this Senator wants to make which will
take a little more than 5 minutes.
Mr. REID. I ask if we could further modify the request of the Senator
from Oklahoma by having Senator Biden have the last 10 minutes prior to
the vote.
Mr. NICKLES. Ten? I will further modify that. I will certainly accede
to that. If he has only spoken for 2 hours, we look forward to an
additional 10 minutes for the Senator from Delaware.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection to the modified request?
Without objection, it is so ordered.
The Senator from Delaware.
Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, I yield myself as much time as I may
consume. Senator Grassley is leaving. I wanted to grab him.
I do enjoy the sarcasm of my friend from Oklahoma, who speaks on this
floor about 40 times as much as I do, if he goes and checks the Record.
Always elucidating, if I might add, always elucidating.
I say to my friend, the chairman of the Finance Committee, I
understand

[[Page S12335]]

the points he is making. But he is aware, in terms of small businesses,
that a small business owner would still have to be in the top 1-percent
income bracket, the 35-percent bracket, to be affected? And, of all the
small businesses in America, only 2 percent fall in that bracket? Only
2 percent of the 100 percent of the small businesses in America fall in
the bracket.
To further make a point, I understand his point that this is the
engine of our economy, small businesses. There is no question about
that. There is no question, though, as well--let's say a small business
owner is making $400,000 in gross income. The effect of the additional
tax he would pay from the tax reduction he has gotten down to now would
be $2,140 a year. Is my friend suggesting we are going to constrain and
strangle business in America when 2 percent of the small businesses,
roughly 5,000, who make $400,000 gross income and above, are going to
have to pay $2,100 a year more, that that is going to constrain the
growth of small business? Is that what he is saying? Is that going to
prevent them from being able to invest or to be able to grow?
Mr. GRASSLEY. I am saying it is unfair to tax small business that is
not incorporated at a higher rate than the tax on Fortune 500s, No. 1.
Number 2, this may only be 2 percent of the employers, but they are
the people who create the jobs.
Mr. BIDEN. I couldn't agree more.
Mr. GRASSLEY. I have worked at packing plants; I worked at the
Waterloo Register Company. I never had one poor person provide the job
for me. I always had somebody who makes a lot more money than I do
provide the jobs for me. We don't want to choke that off in America.
Mr. BIDEN. I thank my colleague for his response. He is always
courteous. I just respectfully suggest that taking 2 percent of the
small businesses in America, having them have to pay slightly more than
they would have paid with this tax cut that is in place now--which,
again, if they are making $400,000 in gross income, that means about
$2,100 more they will pay--is a heck of a lot more preferable than
asking middle-class taxpayers and asking small businessmen who make
$50,000 a year, and mechanics who make $35,000 a year, and
schoolteachers who make $40,000 a year, to have to pay more.
I find it fascinating that for those who do not like my proposal to
deal with the top 1 percent, I have not heard any alternative offered.
Are they suggesting we should repeal part of the tax cut or delay part
of the tax cut for everybody? No, they make no alternative offer. The
alternative offer they make is we are going to add it to the deficit,
so the pages can pay. I am going to start calling this the page-pay
bill. The pages will pay.
I see my friend from Oklahoma, whom I always enjoy hearing, and he
was seeking the floor earlier, so I reserve the remainder of my time
and await the eloquent words of my friend from Oklahoma as to why this
is not a good idea. I am sure he has very many ideas as to why this is
not a good idea.
I yield the floor. I reserve the remainder of my time.
Mr. NICKLES. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the
quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. NICKLES. I have just caught a portion of this debate, but I want
to make a couple of comments. My very good friend from Delaware said,
Why is this amendment a bad idea? This amendment is a bad idea because
it is unconstitutional.
We all take an oath at the beginning of the year to uphold the
Constitution. I know all of our colleagues are aware of article I,
section 7 of the Constitution that says all bills raising revenue shall
originate in the House of Representatives, but the Senate may propose
or concur with amendments as on other bills.
The House originates tax bills. The amendment of our colleague from
Delaware tries to turn an appropriations bill into a tax bill, a tax
bill that did not go through the Ways and Means Committee. It certainly
didn't go through the Finance Committee. I am on the Finance Committee.
So it is unconstitutional.
If this amendment passes, the House will blue-slip it. For people who
do not know what a blue slip is, they kill the bill. They will not even
consider it. They will not even look at it. It is a great tradition in
the House because we have tried it on occasion. Every time it happens,
every time somebody tries to slip in a little revenue provision in the
bill, no matter how insignificant in comparison to the overall bill,
the House loves to blue-slip it and remind the Senate that the
Constitution gives them and them only the right to originate revenue
bills.
Our forefathers put it in the Constitution. We are sworn to uphold
the Constitution. This is a killer amendment. It does not belong in
this bill.
If our colleague wants to raise income taxes by 10 percent on the
upper income brackets, he can do so. He can introduce a bill. He may or
may not get a hearing before the Finance Committee. I hope not, but he
might. He may or may not get a markup in the Finance Committee. I hope
not, but he might. He might take a bill that is going through the
Finance Committee and offer it as an amendment and be successful. I
hope not, but he might. Those are all legal, constitutional avenues of
raising taxes.
This is not. You don't raise taxes on a spending bill that is going
through the Senate unless the House has a revenue provision. If the
House has a revenue provision, then it certainly can be done. So that
is one reason. Let's not kill this bill.
I have heard a lot of people say they support the bill. They want to
pass the money, they want to assist the troops, they even want to
assist the Iraqi people--it is hard to say the Iraqi government; they
don't have a government yet, but we are trying to establish a
government and I compliment Ambassador Bremer and the President. This
is an enormous effort the United States is undertaking. It is
challenging; it is expensive. It is expensive in dollars and it is also
expensive in blood. We have lost American lives. We have thousands of
Americans who are spending their time right now in Iraq, in Baghdad,
away from their families, making a significant sacrifice. Now we are
trying to say are we going to help them or are we not.
This amendment which purports to say we want to pay for it, but we
are only going to have the upper 1 percent pay for it, I don't think is
good tax policy. I don't think you can say we just want to sock it to
the upper income people.
I heard earlier statements by speakers saying if we do not do this,
the deficit is just getting really bad. I happen to be concerned about
the deficit, too. But I might note we just passed a couple of
appropriations bills and I tallied up the number of amendments to
increase spending on those appropriations bills and I didn't hear very
much on the other side about concern for deficit. One of the last
appropriations bills we passed was the Labor-HHS appropriations bill,
and there were amendments, primarily supported by colleagues on the
other side of the aisle, that we defeated using budget points of order,
that would have increased spending over a 1-year period, next year,
$26.4 billion, and over a 10-year period $386.8 billion. That was just
on the Labor-HHS bill alone. No one was saying the deficit concerns us.
Then on another bill, just to give another example on the Homeland
Security bill, Senator Cochran's bill, Senator Cochran made points of
order against amendments to increase spending by $17.4 billion in 2004
alone, and a total of $254.1 billion over a 10-year period of time.
I did not hear people say then, we are concerned about the deficit.
In other words, they are quite willing to spend more money and bust the
budget over the President's request and over what was agreed upon by
both the House and the Senate. There was no concern about deficits when
we were trying to increase spending in those areas.
Now we have a spending bill before us. This bill is outside the
budget. It is requested as an emergency by the President of the United
States. It passed the Appropriations Committee as an emergency. I am
not saying it is perfect. I will tell you that I doubt it is

[[Page S12336]]

perfect. I expect it might be improved. It probably will be improved as
we consider it on the floor. But to say we are now going to basically
violate the Constitution and have a tax amendment that would really, in
effect, kill the bill, I don't want to do that. Nor do I want to
increase income tax rates on the upper 1 or 2 percent of American
taxpayers. That is a 10-percent increase.
I heard people say that is just delaying it. It is a 10-percent
increase. It would take the maximum rate from 35 percent to 38.2
percent. I might mention 35 percent. When Bill Clinton was President,
the maximum rate was 31. When he was elected, it was 31 percent. After
he passed some tax increases, it went up to 39.6. All these great tax
cuts that we have done moved the tax rate down to 35 percent.
President Clinton and Congress at that time reduced the rate of his
increase on the upper income by about half. If my math is correct, 35
percent is more than a third. That doesn't include what States charge.
If you add State taxes on top of it, you realize some people are paying
more than 40-some-odd percent of their income to government. In other
words, government is coming closer to taking half of what they make. I
disagree with that because I think that suffocates people's initiative
and their willingness to build, grow, and expand.
As mentioned by the chairman of the Finance Committee, 80 percent of
the benefits on the top income tax rates are really held by small
business and sole proprietorships, S corporations, and farms. We would
be hitting the very people who are creating the jobs. If we want to
have economic growth in this country, the last thing we need to do is
say, if you are only a small business, we will sock it to you with a
10-percent increase. I think that makes no sense whatsoever.
I urge my colleagues to vote no on this amendment primarily on
constitutional grounds. If this amendment is agreed to, this amendment
will be blue-slipped. It would kill the bill, and there would be no
assistance coming out of the Senate.
I urge my colleagues not to make that mistake--not to pass a tax
policy without consideration certainly of those on the Ways and Means
Committee and on the Finance Committee as is the normal order, the way
we are supposed to legislate on appropriations matters.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum, and I ask unanimous consent that
the time be charged equally to both sides.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Crapo). Without objection, it is so
ordered.
The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, I understand the vote is to take place at
3:45.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. That is correct.
Mr. HARKIN. I ask between now and the time the vote is called, if we
are in a quorum call, the time be charged equally to both sides.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. HARKIN. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. BIDEN. Parliamentary inquiry, Mr. President: How much time
remains under the control of the Senator from Delaware?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Seventeen minutes.
Mr. BIDEN. I thank the Chair. Second inquiry: And how much time does
the majority have?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority's time has expired.
Mr. BIDEN. And last inquiry: And the vote is set for?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. It is set for 3:45.
Mr. BIDEN. I thank the Chair very much.
Mr. President, I yield myself such time as I may consume, and I
expect to consume the remainder of my time now.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Delaware is recognized.
Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, I expected to--and I did hear--a vigorous
defense of the tax cuts today. And I expected to hear that anyone who
supports my proposal to pay for this $87 billion supplemental is
someone who is hostile to wealth and success. I did not hear much of
that. I heard a little bit of that. And I expected to hear that I am
really putting regular folks into the category with Park Avenue wealthy
people. I expected to hear that.
Well, think of it this way: If someone today came to the floor and
proposed a $600 billion tax cut for the top 1 percent of the American
taxpayers--assume the tax cut had not passed. Just picture this:
Someone walked on the floor today, as we are about to vote on an $87
billion supplemental, and said: I propose a $600 billion tax cut
between now and the year 2010 for the top 1 percent of the American
taxpayers--and did it, again, at this moment, when we will have a $500-
plus billion deficit for next year, and expanding national security
demands, not decreasing national security demands, well beyond Iraq,
and expanding homeland security needs, not diminishing homeland
security needs, and while the House of Representatives and the Senate
are in conference about to report back, I assume, a multibillion-dollar
relief bill as we need for prescription drugs.
If someone came forward today and said, I have an idea; let's
diminish the tax burden of the top 1 percent of the U.S. taxpayers--
that is, people making an average of $1 million a year--let's reduce
their taxes by $600 billion, what do you think would happen? Would
anyone seriously on this floor say, that is a good idea now, that is a
great idea, let's go ahead and do that?
How about if they came to the floor and said, Let's not make it $600
billion, let's cut their taxes $689.1 billion, roughly. Would anybody
here vote for that today? Would anybody honestly vote for that today?
Today we hear that $600 billion in tax cuts for the wealthy is not
enough. Why do I say that? My proposal only says, instead of giving the
wealthiest Americans, that is people making a gross income of about
$400,000 a year, a net income after all the deductions and everything
of about $312,000 a year, you don't even get into this game unless you
fall in that category, and people who are making $1 million a year on
average, all I am saying is, give them $600 billion, not $690 billion,
and don't even touch them until 2005. Have them pay this out in
additional taxes, instead of getting 690 get 6 over a 6-year period,
beginning in 2005 basically. That is all I am saying.
Today we are told by those who oppose this that, no, we can't afford
to do anything except give them a $688.9 billion limit or the sky will
fall, small business will shutter their windows, and the recovery of
capitalism, as we know it, will grind to a halt.
Give me a break. I have yet to hear a single economist--this has been
floating around now out there, this idea of mine, for the past couple
weeks--say this is going to have any impact on the recovery. In fact,
the opposite is going to happen. If we add another $87 billion to the
deficit, interest rates will go higher. That is going to short circuit
a recovery, not paying out over a 6-year period an additional $87
billion that is not going into their pockets.
Again, I keep coming back to this point. Even wealthy Americans don't
oppose this. A Wall Street Journal poll asked the question, If Congress
approves President Bush's request for $87 billion in Iraq and
Afghanistan, how would you prefer that Congress pay for it? Scrap the
Medicare drug benefits bill?
Seven percent of Americans, obviously those with Medicare benefits
and drug coverage, said, yes, that is a good idea; pay for it by not
passing the prescription drug proposal. Twelve percent said to borrow
the money. Add to the deficit; go out and borrow it. Make the pages
pay. Borrow for it. Twelve percent said that. Twenty-five percent said
some other way or they were not sure. A full 56 percent said, cancel,
not 13 percent of the tax cut for the wealthiest--I think that is the
number--but cancel all of the tax cut for

[[Page S12337]]

the wealthiest Americans. They want to take it all away.
I am not doing that. I am saying, keep $600 billion. Just don't take
$688.9 billion.
Look, I have been here a long while. It is fascinating to me. I keep
getting the same lesson taught to me. The American people are always
way ahead of us. The $87 billion in additional revenue we are seeking
with this amendment is less than eight-tenths of 1 percent of our $11
trillion economy.
I challenge any of my colleagues to tell me they honestly believe
this is going to slow up this jobless recovery. It won't even have any
affect until the recovery is a year and a half underway. Fewer than 1
percent of the wealthiest Americans will even be affected by this
change. Keep in mind, this is like my saying to my grandchildren--I
have three granddaughters--we are going to go to the ice cream store
and, look, pop only has 12 bucks with him. I can only afford three
double-dip ice cream cones. I can't afford three triple-dip ice cream
cones. So you are only going to get two dips instead of three. It is
not like saying: Look, kids, I was going to feed you tonight but you
are not going to get to eat. We were going to have hamburgers and
french fries and a salad, but all I am going to give you is a salad. Or
you can't eat at all. We are not taking away anything. We are just not
giving as much.

Again, small business, fewer than 2 percent of small businesses, that
is, sole proprietors, the real mom-and-pop small businesses, will even
be affected by this. Ninety-eight percent will not be affected.
This is a small, tiny nick in a huge tax cut. It asks for a
contribution from those who have the clearest ability to contribute--
not because we want to punish them. This isn't about being punitive. It
is because they have the clearest capability.
Again, take my granddaughters out. Assume my son was not doing better
than I am--he is but assume he isn't--and the kids want an ice cream
cone. Why shouldn't pop pay? I have the money to pay for it. It is not
going to affect me at all. But if all he had in his whole pocket was 10
bucks for the week, why should he pay when I have 300 bucks in my
pocket? This just isn't fair.
Again, I repeat, I don't know any wealthy Americans making $1 million
a year who say, look, I don't want to do this. It is going to hurt me.
I am not going to be able to make it. This is going to put a crimp in
my style.
Again, let me give you a number. If you have an income of $400,000 a
year--remember, the average income of the people in this bracket is
almost a million dollars, 980-some-thousand dollars a year. Let's just
put that in perspective. If, in fact, you are making $400,000 a year
and your tax rate is going to go, from 2005 to 2010, back up from 35 to
38.2, what is the effect on your pocket? You pay the difference between
312, which gets you into the category, and 400, at a higher rate. That
is $68,000, roughly. You have to get to 380-something. How much more
taxes does it mean that you pay? Roughly, $2,100 more a year.
Are you telling me the people making $400,000 a year are not willing
to kick in $2,100 a year for 5 years beginning in the year 2005--or for
6 years beginning in 2005 to win the peace in Iraq? Boy, do we
underestimate these folks. These are loyal, patriotic Americans. They
would be ready to do a lot more if we needed them to do it. But $2,100,
if you make a million dollars? I asked my staff to do a back-of-the-
envelope calculation. Let's say the poor guy who has no deductions--
``poor'' guy--the rookie who signs a contract for $1.150 million. Guess
what. After standard deductions because of the loopholes and the other
things the wealthiest among us in this country have, he has a real
taxable income of a million dollars. How much more is he going to have
to pay? Roughly $22,000. That is going to kill him, right? Does that
mean you don't have a gold-plated toilet seat? What does it mean?
Again, I am not hearing any of these wealthy folks complain. I am
hearing everybody complain in their name, but I don't hear any of them
complain. Let me tell you, I have been doing this a long time. Few
times have I ever stood on the floor, with CNN watching, saying if
there is anybody who is making over $400,000 a year who is not willing
to pay $2,100 more to win the war, call me. No one is calling me. I
don't get this.
I don't think these folks who will be affected by this tax change
will begrudge one nickel of this $87 billion. So I say to my
colleagues, if we don't do this now, pay for this installment in the
war now, taking a small part of the tax cut, when we have a national
security emergency supplemental request from the President, when the
deficit is skyrocketing to over half a trillion dollars a year, are
there no circumstances ever when it will be right to reconsider less
than 5 percent of the biggest tax cut in history?
My time is almost up. It seems to me we are at a place where
responsibility dictates that we be rational and not ideological, we pay
now instead of just putting this on the tab for the pages on the Senate
floor, that we don't ask our children to pay for our security, and we
pay for our security and our children's security.
This, to me, is the most inexplicable opposition to anything I have
ever been involved with on the floor of the Senate.
I believe my time has expired. I urge my colleagues to vote for the
Biden-Kerry amendment. I thank the Chair and yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska is recognized.
Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, for the reasons previously stated on this
side, I move to table Senator Biden's amendment and ask for the yeas
and nays.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
There is a sufficient second.
The question is on agreeing to the motion.
The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. REID. I announce that the Senator from Florida (Mr. Graham) is
necessarily absent.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber
desiring to vote?
The result was announced--yeas 57, nays 42, as follows:

[Rollcall Vote No. 373 Leg.]

YEAS--57

Alexander
Allard
Allen
Baucus
Bayh
Bennett
Bond
Breaux
Brownback
Bunning
Burns
Campbell
Chambliss
Cochran
Coleman
Collins
Cornyn
Craig
Crapo
DeWine
Dole
Domenici
Ensign
Enzi
Fitzgerald
Frist
Graham (SC)
Grassley
Gregg
Hagel
Hatch
Hutchison
Inhofe
Kyl
Lincoln
Lott
Lugar
McCain
McConnell
Miller
Murkowski
Nelson (NE)
Nickles
Pryor
Roberts
Santorum
Sessions
Shelby
Smith
Snowe
Specter
Stevens
Sununu
Talent
Thomas
Voinovich
Warner

NAYS--42

Akaka
Biden
Bingaman
Boxer
Byrd
Cantwell
Carper
Chafee
Clinton
Conrad
Corzine
Daschle
Dayton
Dodd
Dorgan
Durbin
Edwards
Feingold
Feinstein
Harkin
Hollings
Inouye
Jeffords
Johnson
Kennedy
Kerry
Kohl
Landrieu
Lautenberg
Leahy
Levin
Lieberman
Mikulski
Murray
Nelson (FL)
Reed
Reid
Rockefeller
Sarbanes
Schumer
Stabenow
Wyden

NOT VOTING--1

Graham (FL)

The motion was agreed to.

Amendment No. 1802

Mr. COLEMAN. Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Smith). The clerk will report.
The legislative clerk read as follows:

The Senator from Minnesota [Mr. Coleman], for himself, Mr.
Byrd, Mr. Dayton, Mr. Stevens, Mr. Leahy, Mr. Dorgan, Mr.
Kennedy, Mr. Johnson, Mr. Corzine, Ms. Collins, Mr. Graham of
South Carolina, Mr. Conrad, Mr. Sununu, and Mr. Allen
proposes an amendment numbered 1802.

Mr. COLEMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that reading of
the amendment be dispensed with.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The amendment is as follows:

(Purpose: To fund travel within the United States for members of the
Armed Forces on rest and recuperation leave from a deployment overseas
in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom or Operation Enduring Freedom)

On page 22, between lines 12 and 13, insert the following:

[[Page S12338]]

Sec. 316. (a) In addition to other purposes for which funds
in the Iraq Freedom Fund are available, such funds shall also
be available for reimbursing a member of the Armed Forces for
the cost of air fare incurred by the member for any travel by
the member within the United States that is commenced during
fiscal year 2003 or fiscal year 2004 and is completed during
either such fiscal year while the member is on rest and
recuperation leave from deployment overseas in support of
Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, but
only for one round trip by air between two locations within
the United States.
(b) It is the sense of Congress that the commercial airline
industry should, to the maximum extent practicable, charge
members of the Armed Forces on rest and recuperation leave as
described in subsection (a) and their families specially
discounted, lowest available fares for air travel in
connection with such leave and that any restrictions and
limitations imposed by the airlines in connection with the
air fares charged for such travel should be minimal.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, will the Senator withhold for a minute?
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Senator Leahy be
recognized following the disposition of the Coleman amendment.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Senator Byrd be
added as a cosponsor to Senator Coleman's amendment.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The Senator from Minnesota.
Mr. COLEMAN. Mr. President, the Pentagon has rolled out a program to
bring home troops who have served in Iraq for over a year. It is a good
program. Under the Rest and Recuperation Leave Program, these service
men and women will get a much deserved 2 weeks of R&R with their
families. Unfortunately, the program only provides for transportation
to places such as Baltimore, Atlanta, Dallas, or Los Angeles. From
these cities, our service men and women are expected to pay their own
way home at same-day rates.
Chad Krandall and Dave Schmaltz, cousins and Minnesota National Guard
members from Gwinner, MN were told the price of a same-day ticket from
Baltimore to Minneapolis-St. Paul would be $1,200 each. Steven Bazaard,
another Guard member from Minnesota, was faced with a similarly high
bill if he was to make it all the way home to see his wife Sherry
Billups in Blackduck, MN. Isaac Girling, a member of the 142nd
Battalion in Iraq, will have to pay the same exorbitant fee when he
comes home next week to Stillwater, MN to see his newborn son for the
first time.
I don't have anything against Baltimore, Atlanta, Dallas, or Los
Angeles. But to be perfectly frank, these cities can't really hold a
candle to Blackduck or Gwinner, and they are a long way away and
expensive to travel to.
This R&R program is a good start, but it doesn't go far enough to
support our troops. These are families which have already made do for a
year without their loved ones, and the toll has been both emotional and
financial. To ask them to pay same-day airfare to see their loved ones
is simply unfair.
If we acknowledge that troops who have been in Iraq for a year
deserve a 2-week vacation like anyone else, we ought to make sure they
get all the way home. That is what we are talking about here--making
sure our service men and women who have performed so admirably, have
sacrificed so much in defense of their country and in defense of
freedom, get all the way home.
I have introduced, along with the distinguished chairman, Senator
Stevens, and my friend and fellow Senator from Minnesota, Senator
Dayton, an amendment to fix this unintended consequence of the R&R
program. We have broad bipartisan support, including Senators Byrd,
Dayton, Alexander, Chambliss, Collins, Conrad, Corzine, Craig, DeWine,
Domenici, Dorgan, Ensign, Enzi, Graham of South Carolina, Gregg,
Johnson, Kennedy, Murkowski, Santorum, Sununu, Stevens, and Allen.
The chairman and his staff on the Appropriations Committee have been
very gracious in working with me to craft a good amendment to make sure
our troops and their families do not have to pay these high rates.
This amendment will not have any budgetary consequence. It will
simply make sure existing funds are used for this essential program to
boost troop morale and to reunite families separated by this
engagement. This amendment is the right thing to do.
I notice my friend and colleague, the senior Senator from Minnesota,
Senator Dayton is here. I yield the floor at this time to Senator
Dayton.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.
Mr. DAYTON. Mr. President, I thank my distinguished colleague,
Senator Coleman, who joined with great minds which think in the same
direction. We introduced this legislation on the same day. I am proud
to be joining with Senator Coleman in the Coleman-Dayton amendment to
provide for transportation to homes and places of origin for our
troops, many of whom, in the case of Minnesota, have just had their
tours of duty in the Iraqi theater extended by 6 months. In the case of
the 142nd Battalion, it covers northwestern Minnesota and North Dakota.
As a result of this extension and this deployment and administrative
matters, many of them will not see their families for up to 18 months.
To drop them off at the Baltimore airport and tell them they are going
to be on their own at that point and at their own expense to try to get
back and see their families for their one opportunity in nearly 18
months I think would be shameful. I think the American people are more
generous than this. I think under these circumstances it is the least
we can do.
I thank the Senator from Minnesota for his leadership on this matter,
and I am glad to sponsor it with him.
I yield the floor.
Mr. COLEMAN. Mr. President, I say to my friend and colleague, Senator
Dayton, that the two folks from Minnesota understand it is really good
to get home--and also the folks from Alaska and Idaho. This amendment
does that.
I urge adoption of the amendment. I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I want to commend both Senators from
Minnesota for sponsoring this amendment. If they have no objection, I
ask unanimous consent to be added as a cosponsor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I express my support for this amendment--
which is very similar to an amendment I had filed earlier--to pay for
the travel home of U.S. troops currently serving in the Iraqi theater
of operations. I am pleased to join in cosponsoring the amendment.
The Department of Defense recently announced that it would grant
soldiers on 12-month deployments as a part of Operation Iraqi Freedom
15 days of rest and recuperation leave. About 270 soldiers a day are
now arriving in the United States to begin their leave period. At the
present time, these troops are required to pay their own way home from
their port of debarkation--right now, Baltimore-Washington
International Airport. It says something about the priorities of the
Department of Defense that while they are asking Congress for another
$87 billion for war and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan, they
are also making soldiers on leave pay for their transportation home and
back.
Many of these soldiers are members of the Reserves and National
Guard. Many of those citizen soldiers have recently learned that,
because the administration has been unable to mobilize sufficient
international support to ease the burden on American troops, they will
be required to spend a full 12 months in Iraq. This is in addition to
the 2 to 3 months they spent away from home training for their mission.
Despite the shifting dates for their return home, our American service
men and women have served with courage and distinction in terrible
conditions.
Soldiers from the 142d Combat Engineering Battalion, a North Dakota
National Guard unit, have already begun coming home on leave. The first
soldiers chosen for leave were very concerned that they might have to
pay well over $1,000 to buy a ticket home from Baltimore. I was very
pleased that Northwest Airlines, the main provider of air travel to
North Dakota, was able to respond to my request to offer reasonable
priced tickets to these brave soldiers.
But this should be only a temporary measure. I urge the Senate to now
clear the way for full government funding of the travel expenses for
our

[[Page S12339]]

troops on leave, including those that will take leave before we are
able to complete our legislation, by adopting this amendment. In
working on this amendment, I wanted to be sure we avoided creating an
unfair disparity between soldiers. We will not likely conclude action
on this supplemental until the tail end of October, and by that time
several thousand soldiers will have already paid for their own travel
home. It seemed unfair to me that these soldiers should be forced to
pay their own way while those who traveled later would go at government
expense.
Our troops in Iraq have been serving under difficult conditions, and
they deserve our full support. I greatly appreciate Chairman Stevens'
willingness to include this important issue in the supplemental
appropriations bill. I am happy that we were able to work together to
provide for the travel expenses of our brave soldiers serving in Iraq.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the amendment.
The amendment (No. 1802) was agreed to.
Mr. LEAHY. I move to reconsider the vote.
Mr. COLEMAN. I move to lay that motion on the table.
The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, what is the parliamentary situation?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senator from
Vermont is recognized to offer an amendment.
Mr. LEAHY. I thank my friend, the distinguished Presiding Officer.

Amendment No. 1803

Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
The legislative clerk read as follows:

The Senator from Vermont [Mr. Leahy] for himself, Mr.
Daschle, and Mr. Biden, proposes an amendment numbered 1803.

(Purpose: To place the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq under
the direct authority and foreign policy guidance of the Secretary of
State)

On page 25, line 21, before the colon, insert the
following:
: Provided further, That beginning not later than 60 days
after enactment of this Act, the Administrator of the
Coalition Provisional Authority shall report to and be under
the direct authority and foreign policy guidance of the
Secretary of State.
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, this is a very simple amendment. That is
why I didn't follow the usual procedure where amendments are simply
deemed read. This was a short enough one that I wanted it read.
It does what many of us feel we should have done 5 months ago when we
appropriated the first $2.5 billion in foreign aid for Iraq. At the
time we gave that very substantial amount of foreign aid to Iraq, many
of us urged the Secretary of State--not the Secretary of Defense--
should have authority over the reconstruction program.
No matter who is Secretary of State, no matter who is Secretary of
Defense, when you are going to give enormous amounts of foreign aid for
reconstruction, the aid should be under the Department of State. After
all, foreign aid is the responsibility of the State Department. Also,
it is the responsibility of USAID. That is what they know how to do.
That is what their people are trained to do.

It is not what the Pentagon does, nor, for that matter, is it what
the Pentagon should be doing. The Pentagon is trained in military
combat. In fact, our forces, the men and women in the Army, Navy, Air
Force, and Marine Corps, are the best trained, the best equipped, best
motivated of any military in the world. Obviously, they showed they can
easily defeat other military forces as they did in Iraq.
While they are trained for war, the State Department is trained to
work to rebuild. In this case, as superb as the military role was,
their leadership disregarded the preparatory work the State Department
and USAID had done in planning for after the war. The problems they now
face reflect that.
I am concerned we are putting our men and women in the military in an
impossible situation. They are being asked not only to provide
security, but to also oversee the reconstruction.
I have a lot of respect for Ambassador Bremer. I have known him and
worked with him on terrorism and other matters over the years. He did a
good job last week when he testified before the Appropriations
Committee. Like a lawyer arguing the brief for his client, he argued
well. But Ambassador Bremer's office, which is located in the Pentagon,
until very recently was not capable of responding to our questions. The
questions we were asking were not how many divisions might move here or
how many tanks, airplanes, helicopters, men and women under arms can
move, but, rather, how can we do a better job of getting water, and
electricity, and other aid to the Iraqi people?
We saw the reconstruction plan, apparently a Pentagon plan, an 8-page
document. When it came out a couple months ago, none of us on this side
of aisle received it.
Now that we have seen it, I understand why they didn't want everyone
to have it. It is embarrassingly illustrative of the administration's
postwar strategy. There was no postwar strategy. All the strategy led
up to winning in Iraq. Everyone knew how that would come out. Of course
we would defeat the broken Iraqi army. Everyone knew we were going to
win. This was not World War II. But, amazingly enough, there was no
strategy for what happened after we won.
I am not among those who believe everything we have done in Iraq has
been a failure. There has been progress. For one thing, I am glad
Saddam Hussein is not here. He was a murderous tyrant. Members of the
administration now talk about the murderous conduct of Saddam Hussein
when he used chemical weapons against the Kurds--something many Members
were outraged about at the time--and they seem to forget the
administration they served at that time turned a blind eye to that and
continued to give aid to Saddam Hussein.
Having said that, now I think everyone, whether those in the Congress
or the administration who supported Saddam Hussein over the years, we
all agree--all Republicans, all Democrats agree--he was a tyrant and it
is good he is gone. That is progress.
We have begun to train a new army and police force and so on. That is
progress. But we were told this spring that the amount of money for the
aid program would be very small. Now we are asked to increase our aid
program ten fold, with virtually no controls on how the money will be
spent.
So, we got into the war, we had no plan for what we would do
afterwards, we have real problems now, and now they want a blank check
to take care of it. We will pay $33,000 each for pickup trucks that
sell for $14,000 here, and we will pay $6,000 for telephones you can
buy in the neighboring country of Jordan for $500 or $600. We will pay
$50,000 a bed for a prison although that is far more than we would in
the United States. We will repair their power infrastructure although
we do not have money to do the same in the United States. We will build
a whole lot of new schoolhouses although we do not have the money to
fix our dilapidated schools. We will build state-of-the-art hospitals
even though we do not have the money for new health clinics in parts of
the United States. And we are told: Just give us the money and trust
us; we know what to do.
In my State, we do not sign blank checks. I am sure we will give
money for foreign aid even though we do not have the money to do the
same things in the United States.
Simply spending more money does not get us back on track. We need a
real plan, and we need the right agency in charge. That is why this
amendment is so short. It is one sentence. It simply puts the Coalition
Provisional Authority--and I assume that will be Ambassador Bremer
although I am not doing this on an ad hominem basis--simply put the
coalition provisional authority, Ambassador Bremer, who has been
working around the clock to carry out our interests there, under the
foreign policy guidance and direction of the Secretary of State. It
would provide 60 days after enactment to give the State Department time
to put in place the people it needs.
Does that mean the Department of Defense no longer has any role in
reconstruction? Of course not. They obviously will be consulted on a
continuous basis. Everyone knows nothing can be

[[Page S12340]]

built unless there is security to prevent attacks on contractors and
aid workers and to prevent sabotage to the projects themselves. We are
fortunate to have a superb military there to provide that kind of
security. But that is what the Defense Department should be doing,
providing the security but not trying to oversee foreign aid projects.
That is not what they are trained to do.

It is unfair to our men and women in the military to ask them to do
that. It was a mistake in the first place when we asked them to do it.
We should not repeat that. Let us not ask the Department of Defense to
suddenly become the State Department, AID, and the general dispenser of
foreign aid. They are so well trained to do the things they do. Let
those who are trained to handle foreign aid and the projects of
reconstruction be there.
It is also worth noting, when you look at the civil affairs units in
the Defense Department, almost all of them are composed of National
Guard and Reserve units. Ironically, to the extent you are going to use
the military for the nation building we are doing in Iraq--we are doing
nation building in Afghanistan, and Lord knows where else--these are
the men and women in uniform who are best equipped for the nation
building we are doing in Iraq.
So we either have to keep these National Guard and Reserve forces in
Iraq indefinitely--and I think the majority of the Members of both
parties here do not want to see that happen--or we have to get the
State Department and USAID more involved in doing nation building. I
favor the latter approach. That is what my amendment would do.
I do not think we should continue to rely on these National Guard and
Reserve units to do the long-term development work that should be done
by others. Let that be done by the Department of State and AID, and let
the Department of Defense provide the security for those who are doing
the reconstruction in Iraq.
Some might ask if the Secretary of State wants that authority, given
what a thankless job it is becoming in Iraq. I do not know. If he gets
the authority, I will offer him not congratulations but condolences.
I see my dear friend.
Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, might I answer my colleague's very
insightful question as to what the Secretary of State has in mind.
I have just been in consultation with his office, upon learning of my
distinguished colleague's amendment. Very shortly there will be a
written communication coming to the leadership of the Senate
expressing, without any equivocation, that he feels strongly that the
Department of State, at this time, should not be given the
responsibility. But there will come a time, I say to my distinguished
colleague--an appropriate time, and perhaps without further
interruption to your opening remarks--I could engage the Senator in a
colloquy to discuss perhaps an alternative measure at some future time.
Basically, it would be after the Iraqi Government is in place and the
United States would, at that time, indicate an individual to become the
U.S. Ambassador, at which time there could be an orderly transition
from the Department of Defense to the Department of State.
My concern, I say to my friend, is that it has taken Ambassador
Bremer some 3 months now to gain the momentum he has. We have a
critical issue before this body at the very moment of whether or not
the additional funds will hopefully immediately be forthcoming. That
decision will be finally made next week. I strongly support it, to
continue that momentum. A shift at this time would result in loss of
momentum.
I conclude my few remarks at this moment by saying, throughout the
testimony and private discussions with Ambassador Bremer, which I am
sure my colleague from Vermont has had, he has constantly said that the
danger to the coalition forces--that danger being indelibly impressed
on us every day with the announcement of a loss or an injury to members
of the uniformed services, and indeed others--David Kay is, at this
moment, before committees of the Congress. In conversations with me, he
has expressed the danger to his operation daily by their transit down
these motorways and otherwise.
The direct correlation of reducing the danger to our troops, to the
Iraqi special survey group headed by David Kay, and to others
performing NGO operations--this whole panoply of people--there is a
direct correlation between the speed and the momentum that the Bremer
operation has brought up to replace the infrastructure and the
lessening of the personal risks to individuals.

Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, the senior Senator from Virginia is not
only one of the best friends I have in this place, and has been for the
years that we have served together, but I also know he is one of the
hardest working Members of the Senate.
As I mentioned earlier in my opening statement, I am not suggesting
for a minute that Ambassador Bremer, for whom I have high regard, be
replaced. I am simply saying that it is not a question of whether the
Secretary of State should take this now or later; the fact is, this is
his job. He should have been doing it from the beginning. We are not
changing horses in midstream.
Incidentally, speaking of Mr. Kay and others, I also stated, prior to
the Senator from Virginia coming to the floor, that, of course, the
military would have to stay and provide the security so these people
can continue to work. I am just saying, insofar as we are doing nation
building, let it be done by the State Department, as we always have,
and not think that somehow we can go solely as a military authority and
then have this country suddenly, one day, become a democratic nation,
and only then will we bring in the State Department to give aid.
I have looked at the plan. The plan said it was to give the Iraqi
people the opportunity to realize President Bush's vision. We may want
to ask them if that is exactly the vision they want. But be that as it
may, this is not changing horses in midstream. We are getting on the
right horse, in fact, the horse that has taken us across the stream for
the last 50 years.
Every major postwar reconstruction effort since the Marshall plan has
been under the auspices of the Secretary of State, not the Secretary of
Defense: Afghanistan, Kosovo, East Timor, Bosnia, Cambodia. Even during
the middle of the Vietnam war, economic aid was handled by AID.
I am thinking of an article on July 24, referring to an assessment by
outside experts, commissioned by the Pentagon, who warned that the
window of opportunity for postwar success is closing. The Philadelphia
Inquirer reported that: After initial deals for reconstruction stalled,
it was time for plan B but there was no plan B.
I would hope the plan B that was written on July 23 is not it. I have
a plan B. It is called the Secretary of State. Put the Department of
State in charge of the reconstruction. Not the military part, of
course. The military is going to be there for some substantial period
of time--we know this--but allow them to do the things they are good
at. They are not trained, nor should they be, to become a governing
power, to become nation builders.
Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, if I could probe my colleague, as I read
this, it states very clearly:

Provided further, That beginning not later than 60 days
after enactment of this Act, the Administrator of the
Coalition Provisional Authority shall report to and be under
the direct authority and foreign policy guidance of the
Secretary of State.

As I indicated, the Secretary is very much opposed to this amendment.
We will very shortly have that evidence before the Senate. But it is
clear from the reading of this that the $21 billion which is before
this body right now as a part of the 87--and it remains a part; that
issue has been addressed--would now be transferred to the Department of
State for, frankly, writing all the checks, working on the allocation
of priorities, the coordination with the military structure under the
Secretary of Defense and General Abizaid, the CENTCOM commander. The
whole thing is lifted and put under the State Department in 60 days
after this, should it be enacted. Am I not correct?
Mr. LEAHY. No, the Senator is not correct. The implication is that
somehow my amendment would put everything under the State Department.
We are being asked to provide over $80 billion. Roughly three-quarters
of that goes to the Department of Defense. Nobody is asking anybody but
the Department of Defense to handle it. We are

[[Page S12341]]

saying the $20 million of foreign aid--one of the largest foreign aid
packages I have ever seen--the $20 billion of foreign aid that is brand
new would be overseen by the State Department. We want to make sure
that the Iraqis do not feel this is a long-term military operation.
People should know, my amendment doesn't stop the President from
allocating and reallocating reconstruction funds to any agency,
including Defense, but State would have oversight of that. It doesn't
shut down the Coalition Provisional Authority. It doesn't require big
changes there.
Mr. WARNER. Would the Senator be more explicit?
Mr. LEAHY. As I have said before, I am glad Ambassador Bremer is
there. It doesn't micromanage the reconstruction effort. It doesn't
create a disruption of any of the programs that are there. But it does
say when we want to ask how these aid programs and reconstruction
programs are going, we ask the questions of our State Department, the
Department that has had this responsibility and expertise, and the
Department that has always done this from the days of the Marshall plan
on.
My friends keep saying, this is just like the Marshall plan. Well,
there are some big differences. One, the Marshall plan didn't ask us to
pick up the whole tab as this does. That was a dollar-for-dollar match.
Some of it was in loans. It wasn't done immediately after the war. It
took many hearings, hundreds of witnesses. And then working with the
President, there was a congressional oversight committee that actually
had input from both parties, both Republicans and Democrats, unlike the
situation here with the 8 page plan that we were given two months late.
Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, if the Senator would enable me to bring to
the attention of the Senate a communication at this point in time from
the Department of State, it might be helpful. As I read the amendment,
it is clear to me that Bremer would now report to the Secretary of
State.
Mr. LEAHY. That is true.
Mr. WARNER. There is no provision that he continues a direct chain to
the Secretary of Defense. That structure, from Bremer right on down
through his organization, would now be reporting to the Secretary of
State. Am I correct in that?
Mr. LEAHY. Yes, but it does not shut down or require changes in the
central command. It doesn't require any military to report to the
Secretary of State.
Mr. WARNER. The Senator has made that eminently clear. I think right
now we are looking at the coalition operation under Bremer now being
transferred in its entirety and reporting to the Secretary of State.
That organization, under Bremer at the present time, composes, indeed,
contributions of a number of personnel from the Departments of State
and Defense. It is sort of a coalition within itself of our Federal
departments and agencies. Our coalition partners, primarily Great
Britain, are integral participants.

How would they feel if suddenly they awakened and determined that no
longer does their deputy to Bremer from Great Britain report to the
Secretary of State? This is a very significant and major change that
our distinguished colleague is proposing.
In response, the Department of State, through its Assistant Secretary
of Legislative Affairs, addressed our colleagues in the Senate by
saying the following:

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on Senator Leahy's
proposed amendment to the FY 2004 Supplemental that would
transfer control of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA)
from the Department of Defense to the Department of State.
While we appreciate Senator Leahy's confidence in the State
Department, we are opposed to the amendment.

That is very clear and unequivocal.

The decision to establish control of Iraq's reconstruction
through the Department of Defense was made because military
operations were and are ongoing in Iraq. The immediate
objective was to establish a secure and safe environment in
Iraq. Restoring basic services and creating conditions for
economic growth could not take place until this environment
was established.

For unity of effort and command, it was judged--and this judgment was
from the President on down--

the Department of Defense would be the most appropriate
department in which to place CPA. The State Department fully
expects to resume control of traditional development efforts
in Iraq once the security situation is fully stabilized and
an elected government is in place.
Thank you again for the opportunity to comment on Senator
Leahy's amendment. We will be pleased to provide any
additional information you might require.

I ask unanimous consent that this letter be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:

U. S. Department of State,

Washington, DC.
Dear Chairman McConnell: Thank you for the opportunity to
comment on Senator Leahy's proposed amendment to the FY 2004
Supplemental that would transfer control of the Coalition
Provisional Authority (CPA) from the Department of Defense to
the Department of State. While we appreciate Senator Leahy's
confidence in the State Department, we are opposed to the
amendment.
The decision to establish control of Iraq's reconstruction
through the Department of Defense was made because military
operations were and are ongoing in Iraq. The immediate
objective was to establish a secure and safe environment in
Iraq. Restoring basic services and creating conditions for
economic growth could not take place until this environment
was established.
For unity of effort and command, it was judged the
Department of Defense would be the most appropriate
department in which to place the CPA. The State Department
fully expects to resume control of traditional development
efforts in Iraq once the security situation is fully
stabilized and an elected government is in place.
Thank you again for the opportunity to comment on Senator
Leahy's amendment. We will be pleased to provide any
additional information you might require.
Sincerely,

Paul V. Kelly,

Assistant Secretary,
Legislative Affairs.

Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I also see what the National Security
Adviser said, and I quote:

The President must remember that the military is a special
instrument. It is lethal, and it is meant to be. It is not a
civilian police force. It is not a political referee. And it
is most certainly not designed to build a civilian society.

Dr. Rice said that.
The Washington Post reports that the diplomats on Ambassador Bremer's
staff in Baghdad report directly to him, not to Washington, which is
true. The Secretary of State, Colin Powell, has told the press he has
to rely on newspapers and the diplomatic reports of other nations to
keep abreast of developments in Iraq. Maybe they don't like the job,
but that is what the State Department is designed to do. I have had
times when somebody said I had to sit in this hearing for 4 hours
because I was either chairman or ranking member of the committee, and I
said, I don't want to, I would rather go to Vermont, or I would rather
go hunting on my farm, or do other things. But you know what? It is my
job, it is a job I was elected to do, and I have done it.
I am sorry if the State Department feels they don't need to do their
job. Maybe they have too many people. Maybe we are spending money we
don't need to there. I mean, this is what they do in Afghanistan. This
is the role they have played in every post-war situation since the
Marshall plan.
I ask, what is so different about Iraq? Suddenly, we are breaking 50
years of precedent and they don't want to do what they are supposed to
do. I am worried, why don't they want to do their job? Are they
concerned that they could not do it better than it is being done now? I
would hope they could, or else we are spending an awful lot of money at
the State Department that we don't need to spend.
Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, in response to my colleague, the Marshall
plan is, in clear terms, a precedent for what the policy decisions of
our country are, as embraced in the request for this $21 billion and in
the future. But there is a clear distinction. The Marshall plan came in
years after the fighting had stopped. As you and I are now in this
colloquy on the floor of the Senate, that fighting is going on right
now--hundreds of thousands of coalition forces--over a hundred
thousand--and many civilians are subjected to the constant threat by
this polyglot of former Baathists, former associates of Saddam Hussein,
terrorists are moving in.
This is a tough situation and there is daily communication between
Ambassador Bremer and the military. They have worked side by side. In
fact, you visited there, as I have. Their offices are just across the
hall from one another.

[[Page S12342]]

(Mr. CORNYN assumed the Chair.)
Mr. LEAHY. If I may respond on that, as I have stated over and over
again--and I will state it again for my good friend, who I refer to as
``my Senator'' when I am away from Vermont because I live part of the
time in his beautiful Commonwealth. We are not asking the military to
not do the job they do, and do well; we are not asking that they stop
providing security or to not continue to hunt for Saddam Hussein or
those connected with him. What I am saying is that they ought to be
freed up to do that job. But they should not be doing the nation
building the administration wants, which is our President's vision for
Iraq. Let's give that job back to the people who are trained to do it.
I know the distinguished chairman of the Armed Services Committee
does not want to see our military there forever as an occupying force.
He and I totally agree on that. He and I totally agree that our
military is the finest in the world, and they have done extraordinarily
well there. I think we have them stretched pretty thin in a lot of
areas.
I am saying, let the military do the military work; let the State
Department do the foreign aid work; and if the State Department is
unwilling to do the kinds of things they are trained for, which they
tell us year after year they need hundreds of millions of dollars more
to do, then maybe we don't need them.
Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, if I might address the comment about
letting the State Department do its traditional responsibilities, I am
referring to testimony before the House of Representatives on September
30, when the Deputy Secretary of State, Secretary Armitage, appeared.
He made the following observations. He said that Ambassador Bremer and
Secretary Powell speak to each other on the phone occasionally but they
e-mail each other if not every day, pretty close to that.
He was asked what the role is in postwar Iraq. He said: We have 42
officers there now--42 State Department officers. I don't want to make
light of it. Both Ambassador Bremer and his second, Clay McManaway, are
both State officers. The guy who is running the show with the railroad
is Pat Kennedy, one of the administration officers. So the State
Department is heavily involved at the current time. The other officers
from the Department of State are spread out not only in I&L but we have
Mike Felia down in the southeastern region working with the Shia. We
have others with the Kurds.
Ambassador Bremer has asked us to come forward with another
approximately 60 officers and that we will be able to fill many more of
these provinces with State Department officers, the high majority of
which will be there with three or four language-speaking capabilities.
I say to my colleague, there is the closest of relationships with the
Secretaries of State and Defense and directly between the Secretary of
State and Ambassador Bremer. As he points out very clearly here, Deputy
Secretary of State Armitage and the principal deputy to Ambassador
Bremer are now officers on loan from the Secretary of State to the CPA.
I urge my colleagues who are following this debate to think for
themselves about the consequences of the loss of reconstruction that
this would entail. You cannot make the shift in that point of time,
and, to me, it would bring a greater threat personally and endangerment
to the life and limb of not only the coalition forces in uniform but
thousands of civilians who are working in various capacities to bring
about the goals of peace and turning over this nation to the Iraqi
people.
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I am getting the impression that my
distinguished friend, the senior Senator from Virginia, is not in
agreement with my amendment and would like to keep the status quo, at
least for now.
I respond that the current structure has not worked well. Between the
two of us, we have a half century of listening to people testify. The
Pentagon has said over and over again--certainly in a lot of the
hearings I have had and I am sure that the Senator from Virginia has
had--that they are not a foreign aid agency. The Pentagon is not a
foreign aid agency.
I think the experience of the past 5 months in Iraq confirms that.
They came in there without a plan, a postwar plan. I believe they
miscalculated terribly and they put our soldiers in a vulnerable
position.
I yield to nobody in this body in my admiration of the men and women
who are in Iraq, the members of our military, but the administration
put them in an untenable position. They have to maintain order, fight
terrorists, build schools and sewer systems, and do all that
simultaneously. Let the military and the Secretary of Defense focus on
fighting the war and leave foreign aid to the agencies with the
expertise.
Just this week, one of our national news magazines said:

On the ground, the Coalition Provisional Authority, charged
with actually running Iraq until the Iraqis can take over, is
the source of increasing ridicule . . . So there they are,
sitting in their palace: 800 people, 17 of whom speak Arabic,
one is an expert on Iraq. Living in this cocoon. Writing
papers. ``It's absurd,'' says one dissident Pentagon
official. He exaggerates, but not by much. Most of the senior
civilian staff are not technical experts. . . .

Time magazine says Joe Fillmore, a contract translator with the 4th
Infantry Division in Tikrit, agrees that resentment is deep. ``Things
may look better on the surface,'' he says, ``but there is growing
frustration with the occupation. The town is dividing into two parts:
those who hate us, and those who don't mind us, but want us to go.''
Whether one was for or against war, we are now there. But when we are
asked to buy enormously expensive items, to spend more money to build a
hospital in Iraq than we would spend on a hospital in Vermont, when we
are asked to spend more money on telecommunications in Iraq than we are
willing to spend in many states in the United States, when we are asked
to spend more money on the electrical infrastructure in Iraq than we
are willing to spend here, when we are asked to spend more money to put
people back to work in Iraq than we are willing to spend in the United
States, when we are asked to spend more money for police and security
and prisons in Iraq than we are willing to spend where it is needed in
the United States, when we are asked to spend more money for vehicles
in Iraq than we spend for vehicles in the United States, I think it is
fair we ask is this right? Is this necessary? Maybe it is time to put
the right people in charge.
Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, if I might again bring to my colleague's
attention the momentum that is presently in the CPA and its
achievements. CPA is providing funds through military commanders--I
want to point that out--military commanders in the field, coalition
military commanders to fund projects at the village and municipal
level. Approximately $24 million has been spent on over 6,200 projects
to date.
Health projects: Saddam Hussein budgeted $13 million for health care
in 2002, approximately 50 cents per person. For the second half of
2003, CPA allocated $211 million--I repeat, $211 million--a 3,200
percent increase in health care.
On April 9, only 30 percent of Iraqi hospitals were functioning. CPA
is bringing the health care system back to life. Now all 240 hospitals
in Iraq are up and running. The CPA has wiped away the old corrupt
system for distributing medical supplies and pharmaceuticals. In the
past 90 days, 9,000 tons of medical supplies have been delivered, an
increase of 700 percent. Because of the CPA, Iraqi children have
received 22 million doses of vaccine to cover over 4 million children
and nearly a million pregnant women.
Education: Saddam starved the country's schools of cash for more than
20 years. Children were taught pro-regime slogans in classrooms little
better than livestock sheds. Enrollment in some areas had dropped to 50
percent of eligible children.
CPA is refurbishing more than 1,000 schools. The schools will have
new plumbing instead of raw sewage in the playgrounds, fresh paint,
blackboards, pencils, and teaching equipment.
Justice system: Nationwide, 90 percent of the courts are up and
running. Criminal courts in Baghdad reopened in May. A central criminal
court made up of specially vetted judges and prosecutors has been
established to try cases in public. The first trial was held August 25.
I could go on and on. I ask unanimous consent to print these success
stories in the Record.

[[Page S12343]]

There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:

[From the Coalition Provisional Authority]

Iraq Success Stories

Reconstruction Projects
CPA is providing funds through military commanders in the
field to fund projects at the village and municipal level.
Approximately $24 million has been spent on over 6,200
projects to date.
Health Projects
Saddam Hussein budgeted $13 million for healthcare in 2002,
approximately 50 cents per person. For the second half of
2003, CPA allocated $211 million, a 3200% increase.
On April 9th only 30% of Iraqi hospitals were functioning.
CPA is bringing the healthcare system back to life. Now, all
240 hospitals in Iraq are up and running.
The CPA has wiped away the old corrupt system for
distributing medical supplies and pharmaceuticals. In the
past 90 days 9000 tons of medical supplies have been
delivered; an increase of 700%.
Because of the CPA, Iraqi children have received 22.3
million doses of vaccine to cover over 4 million children and
nearly a million pregnant women.
Education
Saddam starved the country's schools of cash for more than
20 years. Children were taught pro-regime slogans in
classrooms little better than livestock sheds. Enrollment in
some areas had dropped to 50% of eligible children.
The CPA is refurbishing more than 1000 schools. The schools
will have new plumbing instead of raw sewage in the
playgrounds, fresh paint, blackboards, pencils, and teaching
equipment.
Justice System
Nationwide, 90% of courts are up and running. Criminal
courts in Baghdad re-opened in May.
A Central Criminal Court made up of specially vetted judges
and prosecutors, has been established to try cases in public.
The first trial was held on August 25th.
Odious legal provisions inconsistent with fundamental human
rights have been suspended. Criminal defendants now have the
right to defense counsel at all stages of proceedings, the
right against self-incrimination, the right to be informed of
these rights, and the exclusion of evidence obtained by
torture.
Eight Supreme Court Justices wrongfully removed by Saddam
Hussein have been reinstated.
Judge Dara Noor al-Din, who was imprisoned for holding one
of Saddam's decrees unconstitutional, is now a member of the
Governing Council, in addition to his judicial duties. He was
never a Ba'athist.
Judge Medhat Mahmood, was never a Ba'athist, has been named
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

Mr. WARNER. There is enormous momentum.
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, when I hear this glowing description, I
wonder why the administration is asking for another $20 billion. I wish
most of the States in the United States were doing as well as what the
Senator from Virginia has described.
If they are doing that well, maybe we should give the $20 billion to
States in the United States that are not doing nearly as well and could
probably use the money.
I am glad to hear the hospitals are all operating again. Obviously,
from a humanitarian point of view that is important progress. I hope
the Iraqis realize they can go to any hospital they want now and they
will receive the help they need. If that is true, why do we need to
spend another $150 million for another hospital? Rural hospitals
throughout the 50 States of the United States cannot say that. I know a
lot of places in the 50 States in the United States about which we
cannot give the kind of glowing report the Senator from Virginia has
given about Iraq.
Keep in mind, I am not asking for somebody to walk in there tomorrow
and take over. But I would hope that within the next two months, with
the 800 people in the palace over there, we might find more than 17 who
can speak Arabic. That, I think, would be the kind of expertise the
State Department could bring.
I hope we will have more than one expert on Iraq, and I hope we will
tell the Iraqi people that we are as interested in them building their
country following their vision and not, in almost a condescending way,
saying we want them to have the opportunity to build a country that
fits the vision our President has for them. After all, we are talking
about a civilization that goes back long before this country was even
discovered.
Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I recognize that important bit of history.
As I say to my friend of a quarter of century, we have had the
privilege of serving here--and I see the distinguished acting minority
leader on the floor--it would be the intention of the Senator from
Virginia to move to table, but I first would like to hear an expression
perhaps from others who might like to address the amendment.
Mr. REID. If the Senator from Virginia will yield.
Mr. LEAHY. I have the floor.
Mr. REID. If the Senator from Vermont will yield, I don't know how
much more time the Senator from Vermont has. We have a couple other
Senators who wish to speak. Certainly Senator Leahy has no desire to
ride this out. We have a number of amendments lined up and ready to go
as soon as this is finished. The Senator from Vermont is the best
person to answer that question.
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I respond to the distinguished Senator from
Nevada, we have had a good colloquy with the distinguished senior
Senator from Virginia, which is not unexpected because the
distinguished Senator from Virginia is one of the most knowledgeable
Members of the Senate, as well as being a dear and close friend. I
think we have probably proved, for those who are watching, the
edification of having both sides here.
The Senator from Virginia, though I control the floor--I have yielded
to him whenever he wanted.
Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, every courtesy has been extended, and I
might add that I am in consultation with the distinguished chairman of
the Appropriations Committee on this matter, who likewise is presently
on the Senate floor.
Mr. LEAHY. I have had time to say what I am going to say. I am also
apparently having incipient laryngitis, which is probably as crippling
an illness as any Member of the Senate could have.
Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I do not detect it. I think the Senator is
standing there with full vigor. I believe we have pretty well covered
the major issues.
Mr. LEAHY. Full vigor everywhere except for my tonsils, I would say
to my friend from Virginia.
The Senator from Virginia has the right to move to table, but this is
an important issue, and I would hope that he would show his usual
courtesy and withhold until people have had a chance to speak.
I yield the floor.
Mr. STEVENS. Before the Senator leaves, Mr. President, could we
explore a time agreement on the amendment?
Mr. LEAHY. I ask the Senator from Alaska, could I yield to the
Senator from Nevada for that purpose? Whatever is agreeable, I am
perfectly willing to do.
Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, we have a Senator's agreement that we are
going from side to side. We have another amendment ready to go. We
would be happy to proceed. The Senator from Colorado wants to speak for
10 minutes on the bill itself, but I should think we could get a time
agreement.
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, after having consultation with the
interested Senators, I make the following unanimous consent request: I
ask unanimous consent that the Senator from Colorado, Mr. Allard, have
15 minutes; the Senator from North Dakota, Mr. Dorgan, have 2 minutes;
Senator Leahy have 5 minutes; the distinguished minority leader have 10
minutes; Senator Biden have 10 minutes; and there be 25 minutes under
my control to be allocated to interested Senators on this side, if any,
and that there be a vote in relation to the Leahy amendment, with no
amendments being in order prior to the vote.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection? Without objection, it is
so ordered.
The Senator from Colorado.
Mr. ALLARD. Mr. President, I understand our side is going to move to
table the Leahy amendment, and I do support tabling the Leahy
amendment. From what I have been able to observe,

[[Page S12344]]

I think things are going well in Iraq. Certainly, I have no qualms with
the way the State Department and the Defense Department are working
together. I do not think we ought to upset the apple cart when things
are moving in the right direction.
I want to take a few moments to talk about the President's
supplemental request in total. I ask my colleagues for quick action on
the underlying bill. The reasons for quick action are simple. If we
want to see a reduction in the number of soldiers in Iraq, we need to
fully fund this request. If we want to improve the security in Iraq, we
must approve this request. If we want a Democratic Iraq, governed by
Iraqis, we must approve this request.
No one in this body on either side of the aisle would deny we need
additional operational and procurement funds for our military. We all
know that. Yet there is a great controversy over the reconstruction
funds which in the long-term could be just as important to the safety
of the troops as the additional operation and procurement funds.
Our troops will benefit from the additional operational funds that
are requested in the $87 billion. My view is that if we want to see our
forces out of Iraq quickly, we need to have those operational funds
because they are essential to moving ahead with Iraq becoming self-
sufficient, with Iraq being able to defend itself and being able to
assume the responsibilities the U.S. military right now is assuming.

My point is that not only are the Iraqis beneficiaries, but our
soldiers over in Iraq are beneficiaries, and they are beneficiaries for
the reason it is going to be an opportunity for them to move out
quicker and get home quicker. That is what we all want to see. Our
ability to protect the men and women of the U.S. military is at stake.
Since the beginning of hostilities last February, there have been 19
soldiers from Colorado's Fort Carson and five other Coloradans who have
died in Iraq. These men and women have paid the ultimate sacrifice in
pursuit of the freedoms we often take for granted. I would be
dishonoring the sacrifice these brave Americans have made and failing
to protect those who continue to serve in Iraq if I did not support
both the military funding portion of the supplemental and the
reconstruction funding.
While the $20 billion in reconstruction funds will not end the
guerilla attacks on our troops, it will make a difference. Iraq is a
dangerous country, and as long as American troops are on the ground
there, they will be at risk, as any American who may be in that
country. However, the fact remains that the more we repair the old
wounds of the Hussein regime, the safer our troops will be in Iraq.
Specifically, the money we spend on upgrading the water of Iraq and
sanitation services, the oil infrastructure rehabilitation, and the
healthcare and education of the Iraqi people will have a direct impact
on the safety of our troops.
Improving the social conditions of the Iraqi people will reduce
hostility and ease the sense of desperation many Iraqis have felt since
the fall of Saddam Hussein. Moreover, this funding will give Iraqis
hope and demonstrate our commitment to not only rid Iraq of terrorists,
but also improve the lives of ordinary Iraqis.
Freedom cannot be bought on the cheap. And, as Paul Bremer testified
last week, the Coalition Provisional Authority's seven-step program
towards Iraqi self-governance hinges on the basic needs of the Iraqis
being fulfilled. Without it, democracy will fail. This cannot be
allowed to happen.
Think back about what has been mentioned before about reconstruction
after World War II and how we all realized after World War I that we
had troops who were waiting to go home, everybody was excited to go
home, but nobody stayed around to help stabilize the countries we
defeated during World War I. Consequently, events evolved and we were
into World War II. I think we learned our lesson, and that is that
there needs to be a reconstruction period. So we had the Marshall plan
put into effect. I think we need to not forget that lesson today if we
want to see Iraq be a permanent democracy in the Middle East.
Perhaps of most importance to our troops in Iraq is the efforts to
reconstitute the Iraqi Army and expand the civil police force. The
money in the supplemental would help establish 27 battalions for the
Iraqi Army and a police force of about 80,000 in the next 12 to 18
months.
Let me stress how important these efforts are. To have Iraqi patrols
policing their own people will allow a safer environment for our
soldiers and show the Iraqi people that we are not occupiers, and that
Iraq is their country and their responsibility. In fact, the commander
of Central Command, General Abizaid, testified before the Senate Armed
Services Committee that the most important part of the supplemental is
these security funds. I quote General Abizaid:

. . . we can speed up the training of the Iraqi Army--
instead of taking 2 years, take 1, and we can't do that
without more money.

The general goes on to state:

. . . every month that goes by where we don't start those
security projects is a month longer before those guys go out
and potentially can relieve our troops of some of their
duties.

If the combatant commander with responsibility for Iraq believes
reconstruction efforts and the security of American soldiers is linked,
we should certainly heed his advice.
I think the additional point has been made in many hours of testimony
before the Armed Services Committee that our intelligence will improve
dramatically the more we are able to incorporate the Iraqi police force
and their assistance in maintaining domestic stability in Iraq.
The issue has been also broached about making the reconstruction
funds a loan to the already impoverished nation. I object to this idea
for two important reasons. First, there are those in the United States,
and many more abroad, who protested the idea of going to war with Iraq.
A large majority of these critics believed this was a war for oil. They
believed our insatiable need for fuel was driving us toward an
occupation of Iraq so we could control its oil fields. I am not going
to outline why this assumption was flawed in the first place, because
you only have to look at the U.N. mandates the Hussein regime ignored
and the mass graves of his murdered people. This is an absurd notion
but not one we can afford to ignore.

However, if we ask for a loan, where will Iraq come up with the
money? Nineteen billion is what has been estimated in their oil fields
when they get up in production, and when they have a $20 billion loan,
that doesn't even service the interest on that loan. How will it look
for the United States when we ask the Iraqis to pump their crude to pay
us back for the money we loaned them? Perception is important for us in
the Middle East and we cannot afford to have an ``oil motive'' attached
to our efforts to bring democracy to the region.
Another concern would be the example set for the other countries of
the world that might contribute to the reconstruction effort. Iraq
already owes $200 billion to Russia and France and Germany and others.
Are we to ask them to forgive their debt and then demand payment for
our generosity?
Our negotiators need leverage when they ask for reconstruction funds
from the rest of the world. Our leverage would be nullified if the
proposed grant to Iraq changes to a loan. Again, perception of asking
for help for a burgeoning democracy in the Middle East would be muddied
if we have an IOU in our back pocket.
A few weeks ago the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Myers,
testified before the Armed Services Committee and remarked that our
battle in Afghanistan and Iraq is a battle of wills. He stated:

We are going to win as long as we have the continuing will
of the American people, and for that matter, freedom loving
people everywhere.

This supplemental request is a measure of our will, a measure of our
commitment to the Iraqi people. Terrorist organizations such as al-
Qaida and state sponsors of terrorism like the former Hussein regime
have doubted America's commitment in the past. Are we prepared to risk
additional attacks against our troops if we fail to assist in the
reconstruction of Iraq? Are we prepared to say to the people of Iraq
they are on their own? Are we prepared to stay the course?
We must act quickly, we must act decisively, and we must pass this
funding as requested by the President. The

[[Page S12345]]

United States must continue to show leadership in the world as we have
since our inception. We must not allow our support of democracy and
freedom to be compromised.
Last year, more than three-quarters of this body voted to support
going to war with Iraq with the understanding we would not stop until
we were victorious. We are not finished yet. More needs to be done. I
ask my colleagues for quick approval of the supplemental funds for the
sake of the security of the Iraqi people and the safety of our troops
on the ground.
I yield the floor.

Amendment No. 1802

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota.
Mr. DORGAN. This afternoon the Senate is taking action to solve a
problem for our soldiers serving in Iraq. Senator Coleman, myself,
Senator Stevens, and others have offered an amendment that deals with
the cost of travel soldiers experience when they are going on a 15-day
leave from the country of Iraq.
The life of a soldier is a heavy burden--in harm's way, away from
home for long periods of time. It is also a heavy burden for their
families. The decision by the Pentagon to provide a 15-day leave for
those soldiers who are serving in Iraq to be able to come home to visit
their families is a wonderful decision. It is the right thing to do.
But there has been a bureaucratic snag in this with respect to some
rules that have said the soldiers on this leave will be dropped off at
some central points in the U.S.--Baltimore, BWI Airport, Los Angeles--
and then they must buy their own airplane ticket back to their home
base. That is not right nor is it fair.
The amendment today says to those soldiers your travel will be
covered, leaving Iraq to this country, all the way back to your home
base. That is the right thing to do.
This amendment will be welcome news to the soldiers and welcome news
to their families. This amendment is one small way for this country to
continue to say thank you to those who serve our country.
Once again, I don't think it was ever intended that a soldier, asked
to serve in the country of Iraq and then given a 15-day leave, should
have to pay for part of the travel to get back home. Many of these
soldiers can't afford it. They are living on soldier pay. They and
their families very much look forward to these 15 days that will
reunite them once again, and they ought not have to be burdened by
having to buy an airplane ticket from Baltimore or Los Angeles. After
all, that wasn't their point of departure. They left home to serve this
country in Iraq and this country ought to say to them, for this
furlough, for this opportunity to go back to your family, we will pay
for the ticket back to your home.
That is the obligation of this country. This Congress on a bipartisan
basis this afternoon said to those soldiers, Thank you. We are pleased
to fix this problem--a solution that I believe is going to be very
welcome news to the U.S. soldiers and their families.
I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum, and I ask
unanimous consent that the time running on the quorum call be counted
equally against both sides.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Without objection, it is so ordered.
The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I rise in strong support of the Leahy
amendment.
The amendment is very straightforward. It puts the State Department
in charge of reconstruction of Iraq. It says that we ought to relieve
our military of the burden of running this nationbuilding program, and
we ought to put it in the hands of the U.S. Government agency that has
successfully run such programs for decades.
The President recognized the wisdom of such a decision last fall when
he directed the State Department to conduct its year-long study called
``The Future of Iraq.'' The study apparently cost $5 million. It
convened countless meetings with independent experts on Iraq and on
post-conflict reconstruction. And, unfortunately, the study's findings
were completely ignored.
According to a remarkable story in this week's Newsweek, when it came
time to send the reconstruction team into Iraq, Secretary Rumsfeld
ordered the State Department expert who had spent the previous year
preparing the United States Government for post-Saddam Iraq to stay
home. Apparently, his absence meant something. Another member of the
reconstruction team who did go to Iraq came home about a month later
and wrote a remarkable article for the Washington Post. He offered a
series of stories about his time in Iraq to demonstrate ``how flawed
policy and incompetent administration have marred the follow-up to the
brilliant military campaign to destroy Saddam Hussein's regime.''
Unfortunately, the civilian leadership continues to rely on overly
rosey scenarios and unrealistic plans while the risk to our troops
grows.
Last week, we were presented a plan by Ambassador Bremer that was
supposed to set everything right in the reconstruction effort. His plan
lays out five security goals--which are to be completed by October. Let
me walk through just three of them.
The Bremer plan will ``locate, secure, and eliminate WMD
capability.'' Yet, today the lead man on the search for weapons of mass
destruction was to brief Congress on his efforts to date. According to
press reports, he will report that he has not found any unconventional
weapons.
The Bremer plan will also ``eliminate munitions caches, unexploded
ordinance and excess military equipment.'' Yet the New York Times
reported last weekend that 650,000 tons of ammunition remains at
thousands of sites used by the former Iraqi security forces, and that
much of it has not been secured and will take years to destroy.
The Bremer plan will also ``defeat internal armed threats'' by
October. Just today in Iraq, our commanding general on the ground in
Iraq, said that our troops are facing increasingly sophisticated
attacks and it would take years before Iraq could maintain internal
security without backup.
The Leahy amendment simply says that we have had enough of
unrealistic plans and inexperienced planners. It says we are not
comfortable that our troops--overstretched and at risk--are being
forced to lead the nationbuilding effort in Iraq. It says what every
independent assessment of our Iraq effort has urged us to do: put the
experienced reconstruction experts at the State Department--not our
military--in charge of nationbuilding.
I urge my colleagues to support the Leahy amendment, and I yield the
floor.
Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I am informed it will now be possible to
yield back all the time on the Leahy amendment. The distinguished
Senator from Vermont is here in the Chamber.
I yield any remaining time on our side on the Leahy amendment.
Mr. LEAHY. I yield our time.
Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I move to table the Leahy amendment and I
ask for the yeas and nays.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
There is a sufficient second.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I would like to note the absence of a
quorum so that we can just finalize some comments before we make an
announcement about the remainder of the evening.
Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, it would be my purpose to try to see if
we could have a specific time on this vote.
Mr. DASCHLE. Six o'clock.
Mr. STEVENS. Six o'clock?
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that this vote that has just
been ordered occur at 6 p.m.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, in just a minute we will start the vote
on the

[[Page S12346]]

Leahy amendment, but I want the Senate to be on notice following this
amendment there will be a vote on a Federal judge. That will be
announced during the period right after this vote.

Unanimous Consent Agreement--Executive Calendar

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent following the
scheduled vote, the Senate immediately proceed to executive session and
to consecutive votes on the following nominations on today's Executive
Calendar: Calendar Nos. 382, 383, 385, and 386.
I further ask unanimous consent that there be 2 minutes equally
divided between the two leaders or their designees prior to each vote;
further, that following the votes, the motions to reconsider be laid
upon the table, the President be immediately notified of the Senate's
action, and the Senate then return to legislative session.
Mr. DASCHLE. Reserving the right to object, I take just a moment to
thank the distinguished ranking member of the Judiciary Committee. I
know how strongly he feels--and I understand the reasons he feels this
way because I share them--that these are very important matters that
should not be relegated necessarily to voice votes. But he has, once
again, demonstrated a real appreciation of Senators' schedules and his
understanding of the need for other Senators to offer amendments on
this very critical bill we are dealing with. And in order to
accommodate Senators who have amendments to offer, once again, he has
agreed with my request that we do a rollcall on the first vote and then
voice votes on the other ones.

So I just want to publicly acknowledge his cooperation and his
assistance on this matter and thank him since he is currently in the
Chamber. But I appreciate that.
I have no objection.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, with the indulgence of the two leaders, I
appreciate very much what the Democratic leader has said. He and I, and
the distinguished majority leader, and Senator Hatch, and others, want
to move judges whenever we have consensus. And I think we have shown we
have.
In the 17 months we were in charge of the Senate, when we were the
majority, we confirmed 100 of President Bush's nominees to the Federal
judiciary. In the 16 months the Republicans have been in control, this
will make another 64 we have confirmed. So it is around 164 between the
2 parties. It is a record that has not been matched for years and years
and years.
But I am happy to accommodate the two leaders. I know the problems
the two leaders have. I would not wish them on anybody else. The two
leaders have been trying to schedule things, so I am happy to try to
accommodate them and all Members.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The majority leader.
Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, just for clarification, we will have the
vote on the Leahy amendment now, followed by a rollcall vote on one of
the judicial nominees, followed by a voice vote on the next three
judicial nominees.
In the meantime, we will be discussing the schedule for later this
evening. Amendments will be in order tonight. They will be laid down.
We will talk about the voting schedule here shortly.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Democratic leader.
Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, before we go to the vote, I know our
colleagues will be coming to the floor to vote on these two matters.
The distinguished majority leader and I have been talking about the
schedule tomorrow. And without in any way preempting him and the
decisions he will make about the schedule, there is a possibility that
we will not be in session tomorrow but that we will have a window for
Senators to offer amendments.
The only reason I say that now is if Senators would contemplate the
offering of an amendment tomorrow, I would like them, at least on the
Democratic side, to consult with Senator Reid and myself during these
votes so that we have an understanding of how many of those amendments
might be offered. We would only have about a 2-hour window. But if
Senators are interested, during these votes I hope they will come to
either Senator Reid or myself to discuss the queuing of those
amendments and whether or not we will have an opportunity to consider
them all.
So I hope we will use the time available to us for discussion of
that. And we will have more to say about that sequencing once those
votes have been completed.

Vote on Amendment No. 1803

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the motion to
table amendment No. 1803. The yeas and nays have been ordered. The
clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. REID. I announce that the Senator from Florida (Mr. Graham) and
the Senator from Connecticut (Mr. Lieberman) are necessarily absent.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Chambliss). Are there any other Senators
in the Chamber desiring to vote?
The result was announced--yeas 56, nays 42, as follows:

[Rollcall Vote No. 374 Leg.]

YEAS--56

Alexander
Allard
Allen
Bennett
Bond
Brownback
Bunning
Burns
Campbell
Chafee
Chambliss
Cochran
Coleman
Collins
Cornyn
Craig
Crapo
Dayton
DeWine
Dole
Domenici
Ensign
Enzi
Fitzgerald
Frist
Graham (SC)
Grassley
Gregg
Hagel
Hatch
Hollings
Hutchison
Inhofe
Kyl
Landrieu
Lott
Lugar
McCain
McConnell
Miller
Murkowski
Nelson (NE)
Nickles
Roberts
Santorum
Sessions
Shelby
Smith
Snowe
Specter
Stevens
Sununu
Talent
Thomas
Voinovich
Warner

NAYS--42

Akaka
Baucus
Bayh
Biden
Bingaman
Boxer
Breaux
Byrd
Cantwell
Carper
Clinton
Conrad
Corzine
Daschle
Dodd
Dorgan
Durbin
Edwards
Feingold
Feinstein
Harkin
Inouye
Jeffords
Johnson
Kennedy
Kerry
Kohl
Lautenberg
Leahy
Levin
Lincoln
Mikulski
Murray
Nelson (FL)
Pryor
Reed
Reid
Rockefeller
Sarbanes
Schumer
Stabenow
Wyden

NOT VOTING--2

Graham (FL)
Lieberman
The motion was agreed to.
Mr. WARNER. I move to reconsider the vote.
Mr. STEVENS. I move to lay that motion on the table.
The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

____________________